The medical treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma is undergoing rapid evolution due to advances in the field. Immunologic approaches to therapy constitute one major focus of our research program. Studies of cellular therapies for advanced disease, vaccine approaches, and gene therapy studies have all been investigated at the hospital. Recent advances in our understanding of the genetic causes of melanoma have led to a renewed enthusiasm in the second major research focus-therapies targeted at specific genetic lesions in melanoma. The use of small molecules to treat advanced melanoma holds great promise for the future of this field.

Selected Clinical Research Protocols

• Allelic variants associated with the dysplastic melanocytic nevus phenotype
• A randomized phase II trial of immunization with peptide-pulsed DCs vs. DC/tumor fusions for patients with advanced melanoma
• A phase II study of vaccination with autologous, lethally irradiated melanoma cells engineered by adenoviral mediated gene transfer to secrete human granulocyte-macrophage stimulating factor
• Prospective study of melastatin expression in predicting the risk for developing local regional metastases of primary melanoma
• Phase III trial of high-dose interferon alfa-2b versus cisplatin, vinblastine, DTIC plus Il-2 and interferon in patients with high risk melanoma-CALGB 500002

Read more on clinical research in melanomas.