Pathogenetic and prognostic studies for improved therapy of Merkel cell carcinoma

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ABSTRACT: Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) is an increasingly common skin cancer associated with ultraviolet exposure and immune suppression. Compared with malignant melanoma, MCC is twice as likely to be lethal. The landmark discovery of an MCC-associated polyomavirus offers hope of substantial progress in pathogenesis, prognostic markers, and treatment. Dr. Nghiem is a recognized leader and as of 2008, a funded patient-oriented researcher in the area of MCC. This K24 proposal will take advantage of an extensive and unique set of clinical data, tissues, and blood. This program will provide outstanding training opportunities for young clinical investigators to develop into patient-oriented researchers and allow Dr. Nghiem to focus a minimum of 50% effort on patient-oriented research and mentoring. Dr.Nghiem is a co-director of research in Dermatology and of a newly awarded NIH Training Grant in Dermatology. To provide optimal mentoring of Patient Oriented Research - trainees, Dr. Nghiem works closely with an established team of medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists at the UW and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Of the 34 trainees that Dr. Nghiem has mentored over the past ten years, 33 remain involved in their training or have already taken a faculty position (12 trainees) at five different universities. The University of Washington provides a rich source of potential trainees for patient-oriented research and facilitates their funding, coursework and mentoring through an extensive NIH-funded Institute of Translational Health Sciences. Extensive collaborative mentoring relationships have been established to ensure effective training of mentees from various clinical disciplines in patient-oriented research. Mentees will have direct patient contact including consenting patients for tissue/blood donation and contacting them later for follow-up data. Their training will also involve the genetic, immunologic, and biostatistical outcomes analyses needed to improve our understanding of this lethal skin cancer. Although these projects focus on MCC, the training will be broadly applicable to human disease. Three Aims (1-3) are funded through 2012 via an American Cancer Society grant: Aim 1. Define key genetic aberrations that are recurrent in MCC, Aim 2. Develop a consensus staging system for MCC, Aim 3. Integrate clinical, histologic and molecular features into a nomogram to predict survival for MCC. Aims 4-6 will leverage our unique MCC resources to study the newly discovered Merkel cell polyomavirus: Aim 4. Correlate viral status and outcome in MCC, Aim 5. Develop and employ a serologic assay to determine the prevalence of MCPyV in MCC patients and controls, and Aim 6. Define the cell-mediated immune response against the MCC-associated polyomavirus. Data from Aims 4-6 will support an application for a new NIH R01 grant to be submitted during the K24 award period.