Why melanoma cells escape the eye and how to potentially stop them
Source: UIC Today, February 2025
While many people are familiar with skin melanoma, this type of cancer can also happen in the eye. Though rare, ocular melanoma can be deadly if tumor cells spread from the eye to other organs.
A new study in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy published by University of Illinois Chicago scientists examined how this metastasis happens and tested a therapy that could stop it.
The group, led by Kaori Yamada of the College of Medicine, used an organ-on-chip laboratory assay to study how melanoma cells escape from the eye into surrounding blood vessels. They identified vascular endothelial growth factor as critical for this leakage. The growth factor causes new blood vessels to form but also weakens their walls.