The Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies Program represents an expansion of the former Melanoma Program which has been funded by the CCSG since 1978. It provides the organizational structure and research forum for the efficient conduct of collaborative basic, clinical, and epidemiologic research in melanoma, BCC and SCC, and cutaneous lymphoma. Lynn Schuchter, M.D. was appointed Program Leader in 2007, having been an active member of this program since 1989. Members have a high degree of collaboration with other Research Programs and extramural investigators, The overall goals of the Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies Program are: 1) To understand the genetic, epidemiology, molecular mechanisms, and biology of cutaneous malignancies; 2) To translate approaches from the preclinical arena into novel treatment strategies; and 3) To foster and support intra and interprogrammatic and external scientific collaborations to better understand the biology and therapy of cutaneous malignancies. The research Interests and efforts of program members are centered on four highly translational themes and are articulated through several collaborative mechanisms (e.g., monthly research meetings, a yearly retreat sponsored by the Cancer Center) and NCI-funded multi-investigator research grants. Critically important resources have been developed by program members and supported by the Cancer Center which has fostered the highly productive, translational research conducted by program members. This includes a comprehensive melanoma database, a melanoma pathology facility, from which investigators can access annotated pathology slides and blocks (normal skin and lesions) of patients seen as far back as 30 years ago; a Pigmented Lesion Clinic for the conduct of epidemiological studies, and a large biorepository of thousands of collected blood and tumor samples from patients with cutaneous lymphoma. The success of these efforts is reflected in the award ofthe Skin Cancer SPORE and additional grants in laboratory-based translational and population science research, including two NIH/NCI POl grants, a newly awarded GO Challenge grant and grants from The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to support innovative clinical research in cutaneous lymphoma. In total, the 19 members have $7,600,068 in research funding (annual direct costs) of which $7,102,900 is peer-reviewed and $4,237,420 is from the NCI. The members have published 373 cancer related publications since 2004, of which 20% are intra-programmatic and 36% are inter-programmatic publications.
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