Immunotherapy Clinical Trial Tackles Barriers to Treating Uveal Melanoma Liver Metastasis
Source: Moffitt Cancer Centre, November 2023
Uveal melanoma is a rare type of eye cancer. Less than 2,000 people are diagnosed with the disease annually in the United States. It is treatable, however, roughly half of uveal melanoma patients will develop metastatic disease, most commonly to the liver, drastically reducing their chance for survival.
Liver tumors can be difficult to treat due to physical and immunologic barriers that reduce the effectiveness of therapy. High intratumoral pressure can cause blood vessels to collapse or close off making it difficult for intravenous drugs to reach the malignant cells. There are also tumor suppressive mechanisms blocking immune response.
A new therapy and delivery system has the potential to help overcome some of the liver treatment barriers. The immunotherapy drug, a TLR-9 agonist named SD-101, is administered as a hepatic arterial infusion via a pressure enabled catheter. This allows the drug to make it through the narrowed blood vessels and into the liver tumors.