Multimodal Tumor Measurements for Advancing Uveal Melanoma Diagnostics

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare but lethal cancer of the eye. Despite initial successful treatment, 50% of patients experience spread of the cancer to other organs (called metastasis). When this happens, it is almost universally fatal. Currently, there are no blood tests to predict disease severity or if the patient is at risk of disease spread. We discovered a new cancer cell that has both tumor and immune cell properties and is detected in the blood of cancer patients. We identified these cancer-immune hybrid cells in patients with different types of tumors, including cutaneous and uveal melanoma. We also published that they can be used to identify patients with metastatic disease that is undetected by whole body imaging (in pancreatic cancer). While much of our advances have been in solid tumors, we recently demonstrated that these cancer-immune hybrid cells are increased in patients with greater disease burden from their uveal melanoma. In this study, I propose to establish an assay to identify uveal melanoma patients with high risk for disease spread by extending the specificity of the tumor-immune hybrid cell and combining detection and enumeration of these cells with a cutting-edge imaging approach of the tumor. Successful completion of this study has the potential to identify and stratify the patients with highest risk for metastasis, which would impact their post-treatment surveillance and candidacy for enrollment onto clinical trials directed to patients with metastasis—and has high potential for impacting survival from uveal melanoma.