Abstract 3691: A chemical therapeutic screen identifies new targets for wt/wt melanoma

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Abstract Once advanced, melanoma is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Metastatic melanoma has a 5-year survival rate of about 15%. Treatment of melanoma is based by driver mutation - BRAF-mutant, NRAS-mutant, and melanomas wild-type for BRAF and NRAS, termed “wt/wt melanomas”. While targeted therapies are available for BRAF or NRAS mutant melanomas, no effective targeted therapeutic options are available for wt/wt melanomas. Furthermore, chemotherapy rapidly fails for this third subtype prioritizing the need for novel therapies. We seek to overcome this problem by identifying compounds to target wt/wt melanoma. To this end, we have performed a chemical screen of clinically relevant compounds against 8 wt/wt melanoma cell lines. In our screen, we have identified compounds that specifically target critical proteins, such as ALK, PLK1, and PI3K. Exome sequencing of each wt/wt melanoma line is being performed to uncover specific genetic signatures that would allow for specific susceptibility to each hit from the screen. This work will allow us to develop personalized therapies for the treatment of patients with wt/wt melanoma. Citation Format: Daniel Verduzco, Keiran Smalley. A chemical therapeutic screen identifies new targets for wt/wt melanoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3691. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3691