£50k grant to find new skin cancer treatments

Experts from Leeds University will examine genes that determine patient survival following surgery for melanoma in an initial one-year project funded by a £50,000 award from the charity Yorkshire Cancer Research.

Prof Julia Newton-Bishop, of the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, will lead the further development of a consortium of researchers across Europe and North America who have collected DNA samples from many thousands of patients to identify genes.

She said: “Our hypothesis is that after a tumour is removed during surgery, some undetected cancer cells may be left in the body, and while some people’s bodies are able to inhibit the growth of these cells, some cannot.

“If we can find inherited genes that determine how the body controls these cells, we can open the way to new treatments for melanoma and possibly even other cancers as well. It is a novel approach.”

Smaller studies in Leeds have suggested inherited variations in two specific genes could play a significant role in determining whether or not skin cancer patients survive which will be checked under the study.

The consortium is also set to look at the role of lifestyle in skin cancer survival.

Earlier investigations in Leeds showed people with low levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream when they were diagnosed with melanoma were more likely to have thicker tumours. These are more difficult to treat, and people seemed to be less likely to survive more than three years after diagnosis. This will be further assessed by researchers.