Seven potential immunotherapy targets for treatment of melanoma identified

NCI scientists, using a unique digital technology that counts RNA molecules in small amounts of tumor tissue, identified seven potential immunotherapy targets for treatment of melanoma. Immunotherapy works by boosting the body’s immune system, or by using immune cells to attack specific types of cancer cells. The success of this treatment for melanoma, and all forms of cancer, is contingent upon finding protein targets that are overexpressed, or highly active, on cancerous tumor cells, but have limited expression in normal tissue. The seven gene targets identified in this work meet these criteria. The results of this study, headed by Richard A. Morgan, Ph.D., Surgery Branch, Tumor Immunology Section, Center for Cancer Research at NCI, appeared Sept. 10, 2013, in Clinical Cancer Research. Read more here.

Study mentioned: Beard R E et al. Gene Expression Profiling using Nanostring Digital RNA Counting to Identify Potential Target Antigens for Melanoma Immunotherapy. Clin Cancer Res. Published OnlineFirst September 10, 2013; doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-13-1253