New approach to treating melanoma discovered by scientists

Thanks to a group of researchers, there may be a new way to tackle melanoma. The researchers found that a gene encoding an enzyme phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK1), plays a key role in melanoma progression and development. The research was led by Ze’ev Ronai, PH.D.. He and his research team used genetic mouse models with melanoma. They showed that mice that lacked PDK1 gene in their melanocytes had smaller melanoma tumors. This means these mice had a longer survival time and in some cases the survival time saw a 50% increase. The scientists then treated the mice that still had the PDK1 gene with PDK1i which is an inhibitor. There was a delay in melanoma development and metastasis was inhibited. "We have shown that PDK1 is required for melanoma metastasis, and that by inactivating the PDK1 enzyme we can delay the onset of melanoma lesions and almost completely abolish metastasis," Ronai said.