Four Subtypes Of Melanoma Found

Melanoma is a deadly but rare skin cancer that has been shown to switch differentiation stages, regressing to earlier stages, which may lead it to becoming resistant to treatment. Melanoma can be divided into distinct subtypes according to differentiation stage, these cell subtypes that de-differentiated to reverting back to a less mature cell showed sensitivity to ferroptosis. It was also shown that certain subtypes could be treated successfully using multiple cancer therapies combined with drugs which induce ferroptosis. 

Melanoma stems from melanocytes cells which produce pigments. Therapies which are more targeted by using greater understandings of cancer immunology have improved survival rates significantly, but many patients still don’t respond to treatment or relapse.

Gene expression was analyzed from melanoma cells and compared to data from genetic databases to identify the subtypes with different drug sensitivities, then organised according to characteristic patterns of genes turned on by the cells. Data from stem cells induced to differentiate into melanocytes was compared to expression patterns when it was found that they could be categorized into 4 distinct differentiation states. Pharmacogenomic databases were then searched by researchers for compounds which could be used to treat melanomas characterized by de-differentiation expression patterns.

New areas of therapeutic possibilities have been introduced by this study, it is the first to link ferroptosis to melanoma differentiation states that is based on specific metabolic profiles and gene expression. Subtypes characterize 4 steps in a trajectory taken by the cells as responding to exogenous stresses. This approach of targeting could complement current standards of care therapies as immunotherapies and kinase inhibitors are far more effective against differentiated cells than de-differentiated cells, ferroptosis induction can potentially block melanoma cells attempting to take this escape route.