Moffitt Cancer Center announced that it has received a 4-year, $3 million grant from the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs to pioneer novel therapeutics to treat patients with rare types of melanomas, such as uveal melanoma. There is currently only one treatment for metastatic uveal melanoma; however, it is not effective for all patients—representing a need for new targeted treatments for the disease. With the new funding, researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center hope to advance two research projects evaluating the potential of targeted alpha-particle therapies. The new treatment option, currently being studied in a phase I clinical trial, was designed to reduce toxicities by delivering radiation directly to melanoma cells in highly concentrated injections. The first research project will include a phase II trial exploring a multiple injection cycle regimen of four doses in 4 weeks and preclinical investigations to determine the efficacy of the alpha-particle therapies in patients with other rare types of melanomas, such as acral and mucosal melanoma. The second project will utilize an image-guided three-dimensional internal radiation dosimetry method in a phase I clinical trial to evaluate where the alpha-particle radiation is being distributed throughout the body and help improve personalized targeted alpha-particle therapies. “Targeted alpha-particle therapies show great promise in treating these rare melanomas,” concluded principal investigator David Morse, PhD, Associate Member of the Metabolism and Physiology Department at the Moffitt Cancer Center.
October 04, 2023