UPMC will house the first branch of the Melanoma Tissue Bank, an effort to speed research into the disease by collecting tumor samples.
Chicago-based nonprofit Skin of Steel will hold a forum Thursday in Shadyside to announce opening of the tissue bank’s first branch. Speakers include University of Pittsburgh Professor of Medicine, Dermatology and Translational Science John Kirkwood.
Researchers discovered an increased prevalence of lung, pancreatic and breast cancer in families prone to melanoma who also carry CDKN2A germline mutations.
Nanoparticles designed to adhere to and light up cancer cells have reached a major milestone in their bench-to-bedside journey. A first clinical trial of these ultrasmall, multifunctional particles has deemed them safe for humans and cleared easily by the body.
A 9-week course of multiagent biochemotherapy markedly improved relapse-free survival in patients with high-risk melanoma, compared with the 1-year course of high-dose interferon that has been the unchallenged standard of care for this disease for decades, according to a report published online Oct. 27 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
