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Hollings collaborates on two studies showing how to boost immunotherapy effectiveness - October 21, 2021, Hollings Cancer Center

Two new studies revealed that anti-PD-1 immunotherapy given before surgery was safe and effective for patients with oral-cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) and identified potential molecular biomarkers in the blood and tumors of patients that would show how likely it is that someone would respond to immunotherapy. Read more »
Biomarkers may predict response patterns to immunotherapy before surgery in head and neck - October 19, 2021, UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center

A new UCLA-led study revealed molecular biomarkers in the blood and tumors of patients with oral-cavity cancer could indicate how likely someone is to respond or not to immunotherapy before surgery — neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy — to remove the tumor. The study also tracked how the cancer has evolved when some patients relapse after treatment. Read more »
Checkpoint inhibition clears the way for subsequent MAPK inhibition - August 25, 2021, ACIR

Even though MAPK inhibitors (MAPKi, such as BRAFi or MEKi) can be an effective treatment strategy, therapy resistance limits their benefits. However, in clinical studies, patients with BRAF^V600E/K metastatic melanoma, who had received prior treatment with checkpoint inhibitors, had increased efficacy of MAPKi with longer progression-free survival. Read more »
Sequential-combinatorial regimens can make treatment more effective for people with aggressive cancers - August 19, 2021, Science Daily

Approach could treat multiple cancer types, including melanoma brain metastasis. Read more »
Treatment of Aggressive Cancer Improved by Sequential Combination Therapy Regimen - August 19, 2021, Clinical OMICs

A new preclinical study suggests that treating people who have aggressive cancers with immune checkpoint inhibitors, quickly followed with mutation-targeted therapy, can help overcome treatment resistance, a common problem with these types of malignancies. Read more »
Sequential-combinatorial regimens can make treatment more effective for people with aggressive cancers - August 19, 2021, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

Approach could treat multiple cancer types, including melanoma brain metastasis. Read more »
New combination therapy could help fight difficult-to-treat cancers with common mutations - December 14, 2020, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

Scientists have long known that therapies that target the cancer-driving MAPK pathway are only effective in a handful of cancers with specific mutations in a cancer gene called BRAF, and these cancers that initially respond to the therapy often end up developing resistance to the treatment, resulting in relapse for many patients. Read more »

New combination therapy could help fight difficult-to-treat cancers with common mutations - December 14, 2020, UCLA Newsroom

Dr. Roger Lo is the FDA IND holder and PI on an investigator-initiated clinical trial funded by Pfizer and BMS. This trial is currently open at UCLA/JCCC and recruiting patients. Read more »

Binimetinib and Nivolumab for the Treatment of Locally Advanced Unresectable or Metastatic BRAF V600 Wildtype Melanoma - December 10, 2020, ClinicalTrials.gov

The Melanoma Research Alliance, the largest non-profit funder of melanoma research, has named 13 promising clinicians/researchers-in-training as 2020 MRA Dermatology Fellows. Read more »

Melanoma Research Alliance Announces 13 Dermatology Fellowship Awards - October 8, 2020, Business Wire

The Melanoma Research Alliance, the largest non-profit funder of melanoma research, has named 13 promising clinicians/researchers-in-training as 2020 MRA Dermatology Fellows. Read more »
UCLA researchers’ efforts to combat melanoma gets $13M boost from NIH - September 28, 2020, UCLA Newsroom

UCLA researchers have received a $13 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to find new ways to overcome melanoma resistance to some of the most promising targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Read more »

UCLA researchers’ efforts to combat melanoma gets $13M boost from NIH - Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

UCLA researchers have received a $13 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to find new ways to overcome melanoma resistance to some of the most promising targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Read more »

Dozens of UCLA scientists rank among world's most-cited researchers - November 19, 2019, UCLA Newsroom

The 2019 list of the world’s most influential scientific researchers includes 47 UCLA scholars. In its annual list, the Web of Science Group, which is a Clarivate Analytics company, names the most highly cited researchers — those whose work was most often referenced by other scientific research papers published from 2008 through 2018 in 21 fields across the sciences and social sciences. Read more »
Cancer researcher awarded $750,000 to help advance new treatments for melanoma - May 2018, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

The American Skin Association has awarded Dr. Roger Lo, professor of dermatology and molecular and medical pharmacology in the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, with the Abby S. and Howard P. Milstein Innovation Award for Melanoma/Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Research. Read more »
Cancer researcher awarded $750,000 to help develop new melanoma treatments - May 2018, UCLA Newsroom

The American Skin Association has awarded UCLA’s Dr. Roger Lo the Abby S. and Howard P. Milstein Innovation Award for Melanoma/Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Research. Read more »
UCLA Scientists Discover How Melanoma Resists Certain Treatment - Jan. 2015, Stand Up to Cancer

In a new study, funded in part by Stand Up To Cancer, led by UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center member Dr. Roger Lo, researchers have uncovered how melanoma becomes resistant to a promising new drug combo therapy utilizing BRAF+MEK inhibitors in patients after an initial period of tumor shrinkage. Dr. Lo is a Stand Up To Cancer Innovative Research Grant (IRG) recipient. Dr. Ribas, a co-author of the study, is one of the team leaders of the SU2C-CRI Immunology Dream Team. Read more »
MRA-supported Investigators Announce Melanoma Breakthrough to Treating Drug Resistance - Jan. 2015, Cure Melanoma

UCLA researchers studying how people with melanoma build up resistances to treatment drugs have discovered signature genetic changes in tumors that give clues about how to counter the effect, the university reported Tuesday.
Researchers find clues on how melanoma resists effective treatments - Jan. 2015, Reuters

Researchers believe they have discovered a mechanism by which tumors eventually evade effective combination treatments for melanoma, providing clues that could lead to longer-lasting therapies for the deadliest of skin cancers. Read more »
Researchers reveal how melanoma becomes resistant to promising new drug combo therapy - Jan. 2015, News Medical
In a new study led by UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center member Dr. Roger Lo, researchers have uncovered how melanoma becomes resistant to a promising new drug combo therapy utilizing BRAF+MEK inhibitors in patients after an initial period of tumor shrinkage. Read more »
UCLA Researchers Make Melanoma Discovery - Jan. 2015, Gilroy Patch

UCLA researchers studying how people with melanoma build up resistances to drugs used to fight it have discovered signature genetic changes in tumors that give clues about how to counter the effect, the university reported Tuesday. Read more »
Clues Found on How Melanoma Resists Treatments - Jan. 2015, Scientific American

Researchers believe they have discovered a mechanism by which tumors eventually evade effective combination treatments for melanoma, providing clues that could lead to longer-lasting therapies for the deadliest of skin cancers. Read more »
Study Reveals Mechanisms Behind Melanoma Combination Therapy Resistance - Jan. 2015, Melanoma News Today

Researchers from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have published their latest results in the journal Cancer Cell, whereby they reveal how melanoma cells can become resistant to BRAF and MEK inhibitors after initial tumor regression.
Search unlocks how melanoma resists new drug combination therapy - Jan. 2015, Domain-B

Researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered how melanoma becomes resistant to a new drug combination therapy consisting of BRAF+MEK inhibitor - chemical compounds used to fight cancer. Read more »
UCLA researchers discover signature genetic changes in tumors - Jan. 2015, Westside Today

UCLA researchers studying how people with melanoma build up resistances to drugs used to fight it have discovered signature genetic changes in tumors that give clues about how to counter the effect, the university reported today. Read more »
Gifts - Oct. 2014, U Magazine

The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) has awarded a $900,000 Team Science Award to Dr. Roger Lo (RES '06), a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center with faculty appointments in the UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology and the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology; and his collaborator, Dr. Alain Algazi (MD '04, RES '05, '07) in the Division of Hematology/ Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. Read more »
FDA approves new drug to fight melanoma - Sept 2014, UCLA Newsroom

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved a new immunotherapy drug to treat advanced melanoma, signaling a paradigm shift in the way the deadly skin cancer is treated.

The drug, Keytruda, was tested on more than 600 patients who had melanoma that had spread throughout their bodies. Because so many of the patients in the early testing showed significant long-lasting responses, the study was continued and the FDA granted the drug “breakthrough therapy” status, allowing it to be fast-tracked for approval.

The largest Phase 1 study in the history of oncology, the research was conducted at UCLA and 11 other sites in the U.S., Europe and Australia.
Melanoma Drug Combo Improves Patient Survival Rate, Decreases Risk of Harsh Side Effect - Sept. 2014, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

A UCLA researcher at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has helped pioneer a new therapy that combines the drug Zelboraf® with an experimental drug cobimetinib, allowing metastatic melanoma patients to live longer and without the harsh side effect of a secondary skin cancer seen in some patients prescribed Zelboraf alone. Read more »
UCLA's DNA Detectives in Action - Aug. 2014, U.S. News & World Report

Calvin Lapidus, 3, sits on an exam table at UCLA Medical Center and points correctly when asked to identify different animals on an iPad. His mom, Audrey Davidow Lapidus, lowers him to the floor and holds him as he moves his legs in "purposeful steps" as UCLA geneticist Stanley Nelson observes. Calvin can't walk, but his movements are far beyond what they were at 10 months old, when he still wasn't rolling over or sitting up and first came to UCLA. Medical tests had not turned up anything, though one doctor had wondered about possible genetic implications of some "interesting" facial features. Read more »
Tattoo removal faster with new laser treatment - Feb 2014, CBS News
New study could explain why some people get zits and others don't - Feb 2014

The bacteria that cause acne live on everyone's skin, yet one in five people is lucky enough to develop only an occasional pimple over a lifetime. A UCLA study conducted with researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute has discovered that acne bacteria contain "bad" strains associated with pimples and "good" strains that may protect the skin. Learn more »

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