Drug combination study reveals new clues to treatment resistance in deadly melanoma

Uveal melanoma is a rare, aggressive cancer that starts inside the eye and often spreads to the liver. Few treatment options exist, and unlike some forms of skin melanoma that can respond well to modern therapies, metastatic uveal melanoma (MUM) remains difficult to treat.

Now, a team of Thomas Jefferson University researchers has tested a potential drug combination for MUM in a clinical trial that uncovered clues about why some tumors are resistant to treatment.

The study, published in the journal Cancers, tested two drugs, defactinib and avutometinib, in 12 people with MUM. A novel technology called “synthetic lethality analysis” indicated that this combination should work to block two different pathways and suppress the growth of MUM cancer cells.

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