Researchers Find a Key Blood Marker to Aid in the Fight against Melanoma

Feb, 2021 - By WMR

According to a new study led by the researchers of Edith Cowan University (ECU) have reported to find an important blood marker of cancer, which would aid in selecting the most effective treatment against melanoma and this can further aid in enhancing melanoma survival rates. Researchers suggested that patients with greater levels of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) a key indicator of cancer in the blood could potentially benefit from accepting a more belligerent treatment as a first line of defense against melanoma.

Associate Professor Gray stated, “Selecting the right course of drugs and therapies to treat melanoma is extremely complex and relies on a number of factors, including the characteristics of the tumor and how it has spread throughout the body. This biomarker could help clinicians to better determine which patients would have better outcomes if we hit the cancer with an aggressive combination immunotherapy first.”

In the study, researchers included 125 metastatic melanoma patients, and examined their ctDNA biomarker levels in the blood prior to immunotherapy. Later, researchers observed that ctDNA biomarker cannot forecast patient outcome in melanoma patients receiving immunotherapy as a second line of treatment, whereas ctDNA can be utilized for indicating patient response to targeted first-round melanoma therapies. Moreover, researchers noted about investigating markers of cancer in the blood, which is also known as liquid biopsy and these blood biomarkers aids in understanding how cancer expanses throughout the body. Researchers concluded the research findings require authentication in future studies, and it is important to carefully contemplate how biomarkers play an important role in melanoma treatment decisions.