08 Apr Why Do Melanomas in Older Skin Have Greater Metastatic Potential?

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Ashani Weeraratna

Ashani T. Weeraratna, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Melanoma Research Center
The Wistar Institute
Philadelphia, PA 19104

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Dr. Weeraratna: The background for this study is the fact that advancing age remains the greatest risk factor for the development of many cancers, and melanoma is no exception. We found that age-related changes in normal skin, specifically dermal fibroblasts, increase both the metastatic potential and therapeutic resistance of melanoma cells. The most fascinating thing is that even targeted therapy, which should depend solely on the interaction between the drug and the target within the tumor cell is affected by the age of the microenvironment.

MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Weeraratna: That we need to think more carefully about designing therapies in pre-clinical models that don’t reflect the age of the patients we treat, and also that older patients may require and respond to different therapeutic approaches.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Weeraratna: We are interrogating multiple other secreted proteins that may also contribute to this observation, as well as other parameters such as the aging immune microenvironment.  

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Citation:

sFRP2 in the aged microenvironment drives melanoma metastasis and therapy resistance

Amanpreet Kaur, Marie R. Webster, Katie Marchbank, Reeti Behera, Abibatou Ndoye, Curtis H. Kugel, Vanessa M. Dang, Jessica Appleton, Michael P. O’Connell, Phil Cheng, Alexander A. Valiga, Rachel Morissette, Nazli B. McDonnell, Luigi Ferrucci, Andrew V. Kossenkov,Katrina Meeth, Hsin-Yao Tang, Xiangfan Yin, William H. Wood, Elin Lehrmann, Kevin G. Becker, Keith T. Flaherty, Dennie T. Frederick, Jennifer A. Wargo, Zachary A. Cooper et al.
Nature (2016) doi:10.1038/nature17392 Received 24 November 2014
Accepted 02 February 2016 Published online 04 April 2016

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More Medical Research Interviews on MedicalResearch.com

Ashani T. Weeraratna, Ph.D. (2016). Why Do Melanomas in Older Skin Have Greater Metastatic Potential? MedicalResearch.com

Last Updated on April 8, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD