Study maps alterations that make melanoma more severe, could lead to better therapies and diagnosis
Source: Eurek Alert!, October 2022
A group of researchers based in Brazil and France have managed to discover markers left by exposure to sunlight in the genomes of people who suffer from cutaneous melanoma. An article about the study published in Nature Communications also offers a novel understanding of other melanomas not caused by the effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
“We found some of the alterations to be markers of the patient’s survival. We were able to predict whether a person was more or less likely to survive thanks to these markers present in their DNA,” said Anna Luiza Silva Almeida Vicente, first author of the article. The study was conducted during her PhD research at Hospital de Amor, as the Cancer Hospital of Barretos in São Paulo state (Brazil) is now known.
Vicente performed part of the analysis during a research internship at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, with a scholarship from FAPESP.