WCCS/EADO 2016 | Cell cycle-dependent resistance or sensitivity to drugs and the importance of MITF genes in melanoma

Nikolas Haass, MD, PhD of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia discusses cell cycle-dependent drug resistance or sensitivity in melanoma. Prof. Haass discusses a recent article published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (JID), where they showed that there is indeed a cell cycle-dependent drug resistance or sensitivity, which melanoma cells can use as an escape mechanism. Using various drugs, they showed that cells respond less or more to a particular drug at certain phases of the cell cycle and this model may be used for patients to test for drug combinations and sequence of drug combinations. Further, they found a gene involved in the sub-compartimilization of the tumor, MITF (Microphthalmia-Associated Transcription Factor). Currently, the are looking at downstream and upstream effectors to understand this pathway in more detail to find new markers or targets for drug therapies. Prof. Haass further explains that the next step is to go from 3D models to treating mice and eventually patients, with the aim to find new drug combinations or strategies to improve therapy. Recorded at the World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria.