Cancers of the skin investigated in this SPORE include, melanoma, cutaneous T cell lymphoma, and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinomas (BCC). The projects and pilot studies are based on a broad existing infrastructure of active basic and translational research in cancers of the skin. They span the fields of cancer epidemiology, biology, immunology, pathology, and therapy to assess cancer risk, diagnosis and detection, prognosis, treatment, and treatment outcome. Immune surveillance genes are investigated as candidate melanoma susceptibility genes (Project 1). Prognostic models are developed for primary melanoma to better design patients? treatment and follow-up (Project 2). Lymphocyte populations from melanoma patients are analyzed to develop new strategies for passive and active immune therapy (Project 3). Patients with cutaneous T cell lymphoma are evaluated that fail therapy with the cytokine IL-12 (Project 4). A melanoma vaccine is being developed that utilizes new principles in antigen presentation (Project 5). Developmental funds will be made available to increase the number of investigators in translational studies. Pilot studies are designed for melanoma, SCC and BCC for disease diagnosis, detection and therapy. All pilot studies utilize novel technologies and approaches to extend the existing infrastructure allowing the group to develop new projects in cancer prevention, diagnosis and therapy. Resource centers provide the investigators with support for all projects. By building on a strong existing infrastructure, which will be further strengthened through this SPORE, the proposed studies are expected to have a major impact on the control of cancers of the skin.
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