Vasu Sah- Novel immunotherapies, biomarkers and cellular populations for metastatic uveal melanoma

Link directly to the doctoral thesis
 

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The aim of this thesis is to discover novel immunotherapies for treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma, a rare cancer type.

Novel immunotherapies, biomarkers and cellular populations for metastatic uveal melanoma

The primary cancer is usually not the cause of the cancer-related deaths, instead it is the spread of cancer to other parts of the body, so-called metastatic sites. Metastatic uveal melanoma, a cancer in the eye, is a rare form of melanoma that most often spreads to the liver, patients with this type of metastases has lack of effective treatments

– This form of cancer is therefore a great challenge for oncologists and other treating doctors and causes great suffering. Several treatment options such as chemotherapy, isolated liver perfusion, targeted therapy and immunomodulatory therapy are under evaluation for this unusual form of cancer, says Vasu Sah, PhD student at Sahlgrenska Center for Cancer Research. He works on cancer immunotherapy, harnessing one’s immune system to treat cancer.

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment,
Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, with durable long-term effects in a proportion of patients. However, in around half of these patients, there are little to no effects. The aim of this thesis is to discover novel immunotherapies and biomarkers for treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma (mUM).

– My research is to study and discover novel immunotherapies for metastatic uveal melanoma, a rare cancer. I choose this field of research, as I want to make an impact to humanity by discovering therapies for cancer patients. Moreover, my field of research, is to study immunity for cancer, and how we may boost our immune cells to fight this disease, making it a highly compelling research area.

The dissertation has resulted in new immunotherapy discoveries
The dissertation has resulted in new immunotherapy discoveries for treatment of a rare cancer, metastatic uveal melanoma. 

Firstly, this thesis has depicted the translational work and mechanistic understanding for combining HDAC and PD-1 inhibition together, in uveal melanoma, foundation of a phase II trial PEMDAC.

Secondly, the discovery of novel biomarkers, both tumor and immune, for assessing and predicting survival benefit of patients in the PEMDAC trial. Novel chemokine axis for T cell migration were discovered and led to the identification of lymphoid like structures at met sites, with positive correlation to patient survival.

Thirdly, in this thesis, they build several uveal melanoma patient derived xenografts i.e human tumours in mouse and further investigate them using tumor spheroids based immuno-screening. With advanced sequencing and pathology techniques, we identify reactive clonal populations, and build a novel discovery platform for uveal melanoma.

– The highlight of this dissertation, is the focus on a rare cancer with high unmet need, and all the projects having a highly translational discovery aspect. The results from this thesis, depicts novel therapies, biomarkers and cellular populations, proving a framework for future scientists and clinicians to tackle this fatal disease.  
 

More about Vasu R Sah at his Google Scholar