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

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR · 2020 · $11,996

## 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:** 10268365
- **Project number:** 3P01CA206980-04S1
- **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:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $11,996
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-06-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10268365

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10268365, Project 4: Multiplatform analysis on melanoma molecular subtypes and patient survival outcome (3P01CA206980-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10268365. Licensed CC0.

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