The Latest on Uveal Melanoma Research and Clinical Trials: Updates from the Cure Ocular Melanoma (CURE OM) Science Meeting (2019)

The Latest on Uveal Melanoma Research and Clinical Trials: Updates from the Cure Ocular Melanoma (CURE OM) Science Meeting (2019):

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare cancer in adults but its treatment is one of the clinical unmet needs in the melanoma field. Metastatic disease develops in approximately 50% of patients and is associated with poor survival due to the lack of effective treatment options. It provides a paradigm for cancers that show evidence of aberrant G-protein coupled receptor signaling, tumor dormancy, liver-selective metastatic tropism and are associated with the loss of the BAP1 tumor suppressor. At the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF) CURE OM Science Meeting at the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) Meeting held in Utah, on November 20, 2019, clinicians and researchers presented findings from their studies according to three themes within UM: 1) ongoing clinical trials; 2) molecular determinants; and 3) novel targets that could be translated into clinical trials. This meeting underscored the high interest in the UM research field and the unmet need for effective treatment strategies for late-stage disease. Findings from ongoing clinical trials are promising and multiple studies show how novel combinatorial strategies increase response rates. Novel targets and tumor vulnerabilities identified bioinformatically or through high-throughput screens also reveal new opportunities to target UM. The future directions pursued by the UM research field will likely have impact of other cancer types, which harbor similar genetic alterations and/or show similar biological properties.