Researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) are making progress in understanding why uveal melanoma, the deadliest form of eye cancer, spreads so frequently.
Uveal melanoma is a rare cancer, affecting 7.6 per million adults in Australia and accounting for about 5% of all melanomas. Despite successful treatment of eye tumors, there is a 50% chance that the disease will spread to other parts of the body, commonly the liver.
This spread can occur up to 20 years after the initial treatment, with patients typically surviving only 5 to 18 months after liver metastasis is diagnosed.
Dr. Vivian Chua, ECU Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow, points out that survival rates are low due to the lack of effective treatments for metastatic uveal melanoma.
Unlike other cancers, including skin melanoma, metastatic uveal melanoma does not respond well to many treatments.
The latest research from Dr. Chua’s team focuses on the BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) gene, which plays a crucial role in cancer cell behavior, particularly in uveal melanoma. This work, published in Science Signaling, highlights that changes in the BAP1 gene can lead to the loss of its protein function.
This loss is linked to a higher risk of the cancer spreading and worse patient outcomes. Similar alterations in the BAP1 gene are also seen in other cancers, such as mesothelioma and cholangiocarcinoma.
To better understand BAP1’s role, Dr. Chua engineered human uveal melanoma cells lacking BAP1 to reintroduce the BAP1 protein.
Comparing these BAP1-deficient cells with those that had normal BAP1 levels, she found that BAP1-deficient cells grew more slowly and had lower activity of the S6 protein, which regulates cancer cell growth. Interestingly, these deficient cells also survived better in environments with low amino acid levels.
This ability to survive in nutrient-poor conditions, such as those found in the bloodstream during metastasis, suggests that BAP1-deficient cells are well-equipped to spread throughout the body.
Dr. Chua’s ongoing research aims to uncover how these cells survive in such harsh conditions and identify other factors that work with the S6 protein. Her goal is to find new strategies to treat or prevent the spread of uveal melanoma.
In summary, this research offers crucial insights into the mechanisms behind uveal melanoma metastasis. Understanding these processes could lead to new treatments that improve survival rates for patients with this aggressive form of eye cancer.
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The research findings can be found in Science Signaling.
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