# Project 4: Multiplatform analysis on melanoma molecular subtypes and patient survival outcome

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR · 2021 · $160,910

## Abstract

Abstract 
Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer. Half of patients with advanced 
localized melanoma will die (stages IIA-IIIB) form the disease. The prognosis among these 
patients is highly variable. Broad risk classification based on clinical factors has limited 
predictive power at the level of individual patients and has no direct therapeutic implications. 
There is a great need to identify novel biomarkers for more refined classification of patients 
into different risk categories to allow for enhanced surveillance and to guide the use of adjuvant 
therapies for early intervention. The program project aims to assemble a large cohort of 
melanoma primary tumor samples from over 1,000 patients across nine different institutions 
with long-term follow-up and detailed clinical and pathological information. Genomic, 
epigenomic, and transcriptomic profiling of these tumors and in-depth analyses of the 
individual platform will be carried out in Project 1-3 respectively. The goal of this Project 
(Project 4) is to conduct systematic analyses across these data types for multiplatform 
classification of melanoma subtypes and prognosis. In Aim 1, we will identify integrated 
molecular subtypes in primary melanoma jointly defined by somatic mutation, DNA copy 
number, DNA methylation, mRNA and miRNA expression. The subtypes will be correlated with 
clinical, pathological variables and survival outcome. In Aim 2, we will synthesize features 
across different platforms to derive an integrated prognostic signatures from the discovery 
cohort (n=660), benchmark the performance against clinical variables, and validate the 
prognostic value of the integrated signature in the test set (n=340). In Aim 3, we will conduct an 
intra-tumor heterogeneity analysis to reveal the clonal status of melanoma driver genes and 
the spectrum of clonal heterogeneity among a large cohort of primary melanoma as potential 
biomarkers for prognosis and to inform therapeutic strategies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10188452
- **Project number:** 5P01CA206980-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Ronglai Shen
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $160,910
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-06-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10188452

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10188452, Project 4: Multiplatform analysis on melanoma molecular subtypes and patient survival outcome (5P01CA206980-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10188452. Licensed CC0.

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