Study uncovers a way to boost treatment for aggressive melanoma
Source: Medical Xpress, April 2025
A new study from researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center shows that blocking a chemical process called nitrosylation could make one of the most aggressive forms of melanoma more treatable.
Their paper, published in Cancer Research, focused on NRAS-mutant melanoma, a subtype that makes up about 25% of all melanoma cases. These cancers are difficult to treat and often resist current therapies, including immunotherapy and targeted drugs.
Researchers found that when nitrosylation is blocked, cancer cells become more sensitive to MEK inhibitors, a class of drugs that target the MEK-ERK pathway involved in tumor growth. The combination of nitrosylation inhibitors and MEK inhibitors led to slower tumor growth in lab experiments and animal models.