The treatment of melanoma with adjuvant therapies and chemotherapy can be effective in some patients. Unfortunately however, many patients do not respond to these treatments.
We believe genetic variation, both germline and somatic, influences treatment response, and that we have an opportunity to enhance the treatment of melanoma patients by investigating these genetic variations. Genetic research has the potential to find ‘biomarkers’, which can be used to predict the most effective treatment for a particular patient, and to predict what dose of that treatment the patient will be able to tolerate. In other words we may be able to realize the dream of ‘personalised medicine’.
To pursue these aims we are establishing a research collaboration called PharmacoGenoMEL, a sister Project to the European Union funded GenoMEL network of excellence. The collaboration is formed of members of GenoMEL, the EORTC Melanoma Group and the UK National Clinical Trials Network, the NCRN (National Cancer Research Network), with the addition of individual international experts. The collaboration will therefore bring together agencies already proven to be effective as consortia, clinical trials groups in Europe and the necessary biological, toxological, immunological and genetic expertise (GenoMEL).
The EORTC melanoma group (
