Skin Cancer Research

Getting treated for skin cancer at City of Hope means you are steps away from labs where new treatments for cancer are being developed every day. That proximity means you benefit from something unique in cancer care — bench to bedside treatment. “Bench to bedside” means innovative research we are conducting in our labs is moved quickly to the bedside to treat our patients.

Precision Medicine

Cancers are able to survive and thrive because of genetic abnormalities that keep them from being detected and destroyed by the body’s immune system. Research is revealing the specific mutations (problems within the DNA in a cell) causing these abnormalities and using that information to tailor therapies to specific patients’ tumor cells.

For example, with melanoma, recent advances have revealed specific genetic pathways that drive melanoma development. Our genetics team is on the forefront of new discoveries about why people develop melanoma — and precision medicine techniques allow them to target those problems within cells, and disrupt the process that leads to cancer.

Clinical Trials at City of Hope

Skin cancer is a disease that can act many different ways in the body. Research at City of Hope — driven by patient-specific, individualized treatment strategies — is focused on those differences, and on designing therapies that affect how melanoma develops, progresses and spreads. Learn more about clinical research for skin cancer and melanoma at City of Hope.

High-Risk Locally Advanced Borderline Resectable or Unresectable Cutaneous SCC

NCT05085496: Principal Investigator Arya Amini, M.D., is actively recruiting for a Phase 1 study to evaluate the benefits of radiotherapy in combination with atezolizumab in treating patients with cutaneous squamous cell cancer (cSCC) that has spread to nearby tissue or lymph nodes (locally advanced) that can be removed from surgery (resectable) or cannot be removed by surgery (unresectable).

 

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Patient Enrollment Qualifications

  • 18 years of age or older
  • Confirmed diagnosis of locally advanced borderline resectable or unresectable cSCC and oligometastatic cSCC receiving therapy to the primary
  • Life expectancy greater than or equal to 24 weeks

Learn More About This Promising Study  

High-Risk Locally Advanced Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

NCT03833167: Principal Investigator Badri Modi, M.D., is actively recruiting adults with high-risk locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (LA cSCC) for a study on the benefits of adjuvant pembrolizumab after surgical resection/ablation and radiation.

 

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Patient Enrollment Qualifications

  • 18 years of age or older
  • Histologically confirmed LA cSCC with high-risk feature(s) as the primary site of malignancy
  • Have undergone complete surgical resection of all known cSCC disease
  • Have an ECOG status performance status of 0 to 1v

Learn More About This Promising Study  

BRAF V600-Mutated Advanced Solid Tumor

NCT04543188: Principal investigator  Yan Xing, M.D., Ph.D., is actively recruiting for a study on the benefits of PF 07284890 as a single agent and in combination with binimetinib in participants with BRAF V600-mutated advanced solid tumor malignancies with and without brain involvement.

 

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Patient Enrollment Qualifications

  • 18 years of age or older
  • Histologically confirmed diagnosis of advanced/metastatic solid tumor, including primary brain tumor
  • Documented evidence of a BRAF V600 mutation in tumor tissue or blood

Learn More About This Promising Study  

BRAF Mutation Positive Solid Tumors

NCT04913285: Principal investigator Yan Xing, M.D., Ph.D., is actively recruiting for a study on the benefits of KIN-2787 in participants with BRAF and/or NRAS mutation-positive solid tumors.

 

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Patient Enrollment Qualifications

  • 18 years of age or older
  • Metastatic or advanced stage solid tumor
  • Known BRAF Class I, Class II or Class III alteration, or melanoma with an NRAS mutation

 

Learn More About This Promising Study  

Melanoma (Morpheus-Melanoma)

NCT05116202: Principal investigator Yan Xing, M.D., Ph.D., is actively recruiting for a study on the benefits of multiple treatment combinations in cancer immunotherapy in (CIT)-naïve participants with resectable Stage III melanoma and in participants with Stage IV melanoma.

 

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Patient Enrollment Qualifications

  • 18 years of age or older
  • ECOG performance status of 0 or 1
  • Histologically confirmed resectable Stage III melanoma or Stage IV (metastatic) cutaneous melanoma according to AJCC-8

 

Learn More About This Promising Study  

Advanced or Metastatic Solid Tumors

NCT04157517: Principal investigator Yan Xing, M.D., Ph.D., is actively recruiting for a study on the benefits of Modakafusp Alfa (TAK-573) when given as a single agent or in combination with pembrolizumab in adult patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors. 

 

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Patient Enrollment Qualifications

  • 18 years of age or older
  • ECOG performance status of 0 or 1
  • Histologically confirmed advanced (locoregionally recurrent, not amenable to curative therapy) or metastatic solid tumors

Learn More About This Promising Study  

Relapsed or Refractory Cancer 

NCT04659629: Principal investigator Yan Xing, M.D., Ph.D., is actively recruiting for a study on the benefits and recommended dose of NL-201 when given intravenously as monotherapy in patients with advanced cancer.

 

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Patient Enrollment Qualifications

  • 18 years of age or older
  • Patients with measurable disease
  • ECOG performance status of 0 or 1

Learn More About This Promising Study  

 

To refer a patient to one of our clinical trials, please call 626-218-1133 or visit CityofHope.org/Clinical-Trials.

Arya Amini

 

Physician Spotlight

Arya Amini, M.D., is a radiation oncologist specializing in head and neck, skin and lung cancer. Selected as one of the top doctors in Los Angeles in 2020 by Los Angeles Magazine, Amini views taking care of his patients as a true honor and privilege. He says his patients are “the strongest and bravest individuals I have ever met.” The winner of multiple awards and author of over 150 peer-reviewed publications, Amini specializes in all forms of radiation treatment. As a skilled researcher and the recipient of several grants, he leads multiple clinical trials in lung, skin, and head and neck cancer. He is honored to be a part of a multidisciplinary team of experts and trailblazers utilizing leading-edge approaches and clinical trials to improve patient outcomes.