SPORE in Skin Cancer

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Project Summary – Overall This Wistar/UPenn Skin SPORE represents a highly successful and longstanding collaboration. Immune checkpoint inhibition has revolutionized melanoma therapy to the point where every high-risk melanoma patient will be treated at some point with these agents. However, many major questions remain on how best to use these immune therapeutics. Project 1 will address the unmet need to find an effective biomarker to select patients for single agent versus combination immunotherapy. Many patients start treatment with ipilimumab and nivolumab, when they may have responded to anti-PD-1 antibody (Ab) alone, exposing these patients unnecessarily to the toxicity of combination checkpoint inhibition. Project 1 builds on a fundamental discovery made through our Developmental Research Program (DRP) that exosomal PD-L1 is an immunosuppressive factor secreted by melanomas. We propose rigorous clinical utility studies designed to demonstrate this blood- based measurement as a highly sensitive and specific predictive biomarker for anti-PD-1 antibody (Ab)-based therapy. Project 2 will address a second unmet need for a safer and effective combination regimen that promises to be effective in anti-PD-1 Ab refractory patients. Based on extensive preclinical data and a new molecular target in the autophagy pathway, we have developed a clinical trial of combined anti-PD1 Ab and autophagy inhibition, a new strategy for reprogramming tumor-associated macrophages to enhance the efficacy of T cell killing. Project 3 fills a major gap in the treatment of early disease by conducting a clinical trial with anti-PD1 Ab in Stage IIB/C melanoma patients. Besides in-depth characterization of the immune response, the Project’s preclinical studies will lead to new strategies for enhancing the immune stimulatory capacity of dendritic cells in the tumor microenvironment. These three highly translational Projects are supported by longstanding Cores that have a proven track record of adapting to the rapidly changing needs of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer researchers. Each Project was chosen by the current SPORE leadership for its potential for significance, impact and innovation. Together, they have the potential to advance therapeutically exploitable biological insights into new, clinically important therapies of patients with melanoma. Funding from the SPORE has provided us with important advantages, including a mature, collective, translational mindset, an efficiently functioning tumor bank, and a highly evolved framework of collaboration between The Wistar Institute and UPenn. The SPORE has allowed us to bolster horizontal and vertical collaborations with academic and industry partners throughout the world. The Career Enhancement Program and DRP have enabled transition to new leadership, have formed the three Projects proposed, and have allowed our research to reach into other cancers of the skin including SCC, CTCL and Merkel Cell carcinoma. These programs will continue to be supported robustly by strong institutional support from both Wistar and UPenn. Funding of this SPORE will bring new advances from the bench to the bedside and fulfill our overall mission of improving survival for skin cancer patients.