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Melanoma Cancer Program
Melanoma is the deadliest of all skin cancers, and effective therapy in its later stages continues to be a formidable challenge. Surgery remains the primary treatment. Chemotherapy and available immunotherapy may improve quality of life, but have significant side effects and do not offer a cure.
Clinical Trials invoking an effective immune response in humans to fight melanoma – Dr. David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate, Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology; Dr. James Economou, Professor and Chief, Surgical Oncology, Deputy Director, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA
Nobel Laureate David Baltimore and Lili Yang demonstrated several years ago that, in mice, it was possible to engineer an immune response that effectively fought experimental tumors. A team composed of scientists at University of California at Los Angeles, California Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, University of Connecticut and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles is investigating whether it will be possible to invoke a comparable immune response in humans that will fight melanoma, using a groundbreaking gene therapy strategy. Because they are focused on turning on a particular gene, this method is expected to have many fewer side effects than currently available therapies. Their work ranges from basic biological research, through development of improved methods of analysis, to clinical trials involving patients with advanced melanoma. Based on data from early research funded by SWCRF, the team has obtained substantial additional funding for this ambitious project.
Phase I and II Clinical Trials of potential drugs to fight melanoma – Dr. Neal Rosen, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Rosen’s laboratory has identified a gene mutation which has been found in 80 percent of all melanomas and which drives tumor growth. The Foundation is funding investigation of compounds that target this mutation in order to prevent melanomas from growing. There are several Phase I and II clinical trials underway to determine safety, effectiveness and side effects in humans. The potential drugs being tested act on different parts of the chain of signals by which the mutation sends the cell instructions to behave like a cancer cell.
Prostate Cancer Program 
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