Active clinical trials for "Melanoma"

The BAP1 trial will examine the blood of patients diagnosed with choroidal nevi or uveal melanoma for a germline BAP1 mutation and other genetic markers associated with developing malignancy as well as additional sequencing of the uveal melanoma genome.

Though it is generally accepted that exposure to sunlight is a major causative factor for skin cancer, the risk for developing melanoma is not directly linked to sun exposure such as in non-melanoma skin cancer. Therefore, a dual pathway has been proposed, distinguishing melanoma that develops on skin that is chronically exposed to sunlight from those that occur on skin that is normally protected. The risk for each type of melanoma is believed to be determined in part by genetic factors. To define these markers reproducibly, the investigators plan to establish a large cohort with comprehensive information regarding sun sensitivity (skin type), history of experienced sun exposure, skin pigmentation phenotypes, total number of nevi, and other types of skin tumors in a central European population. The investigators will obtain blood from all participants for DNA as well as serum analyses. Based on the finding that genetic variants of the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene, associated with red hair and fair skin, have been shown to be associated with increased risk for melanoma, particularly those harboring BRAF mutations, the investigators will now focus on the study of recently discovered genetic variants associated with pigmentation. Furthermore, the investigators will study the relation of these variants with oncogenic mutations of melanoma in BRAF, RAS and c-Kit. The study of other genetic variants will follow, once a sufficiently large cohort has been established to reveal an independent genetic risk factor in a multivariate analysis including potential covariates as mentioned above. The identification of genetic risk factors for melanoma will not only help identify individuals with increased risk but also improve our understanding of the molecular background of the development of melanoma.

Knowledge about the correlations between the composition of the gut microbiome and a wide range of diseases has substantially increased in recent years. Nonetheless, there is no reference set of information about the microbiome in Poland. The development of such a reference will allow polish scientists conducting research in the field of interaction between gut flora components and such characteristics as lifestyle, certain diseases or patient's responses for treatment. Following the example of such countries as the United States, investigators propose to build a unique set of scientific processed information describing the variability of the polish population microbiome (Polish Microbiome Map). The investigators will provide a reliable dataset that will characterize the gut microbiomes and their diversity in the polish population. Additionally, thanks to the creation of the standard protocol for microbiome data collection the research conducted by the MMP users will be comparable with the information deposited in MMP.

The purpose of this study is to establish a standardized process for obtaining digital pathological image information of ocular tumors; use modern pathological techniques to obtain the co-expression information of multiple biomarkers in the pathological tissues of ocular tumors, and finally construct standardized digital ocular tumors with biomarkers Pathology image database.