Skin cancer: New therapy option to prevent metastases

As an extremely aggressive form of skin cancer, cutaneous melanoma is still associated with a high mortality rate. Enormous progress has recently been made in the fight against deadly metastasis, but existing therapeutic measures are still not effective in many cases. Now a research team led by Wolfgang Weninger and Shweta Tikoo from MedUni Vienna's Department of Dermatology has discovered a new option that targets the metastatic capacity of melanoma cells. The results of the study pave the way for the development of a new class of drugs and have recently been published in the scientific journal PNAS. Side effects, resistance, and limited efficacy of targeted therapies and immunotherapeutics are the problems encountered in the treatment of metastatic melanoma despite enormous medical advances over the past ten years. "In addition, there are still no drugs that directly target the metastatic ability of melanoma cells," say study leaders Wolfgang Weninger and Shweta Tikoo from MedUni Vienna's Department of Dermatology, describing the starting point for the research work. In their search for a treatment option that could not only combat the spread of cancer, but even prevent it, the research team focused on the complex process of metastasis.