The Melanoma Research Program encourages scientists and clinicians to conduct research in partnership with members of the melanoma community, which includes Service Members and Veterans. Service Members are 60 percent more likely to develop melanoma compared to the general population, with the greatest incidence rates in the Air Force, Navy and the Marines.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer affecting the cells that make the skin pigment melanin. It is the deadliest skin cancer because melanoma grows quickly and can spread to other organs if not diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
Exposure to ultraviolet radiation is a known risk factor for melanoma. Warfighters deployed to locations with high ultraviolet exposure may be unable to avoid times of peak sunlight or surfaces that reflect the sun’s rays, such as sand, during missions. Evidence suggests non-ultraviolet exposures, such as high altitudes and certain chemicals, may contribute to higher rates of melanoma in Veterans, particularly in Veterans diagnosed with rare types of melanomas.
A 2021 study of 156,050 former and active U.S. military aviators and aviation support personnel reported that aviators had an 87% higher rate of melanoma compared to a demographically similar population of the United States.
In fiscal year 2025, the MRP received $40 million in congressional appropriations as part of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. The mission of the MRP is to develop earlier interventions to enhance mission readiness, diminish melanoma burden and improve quality of life for Service Members and their Families, Veterans and the American public.
Beyond the hallmark roles of patients in the CDMRP’s two-tier application review process and in setting program priorities, the MRP encourages investigators to include melanoma patients, survivors and caregivers as active members of research teams. Service Members and Veterans affected by melanoma serve the MRP in multiple capacities, including as research team members. This collaborative research approach creates a patient-centered partnership where melanoma community members help scientists and clinicians identify critical research questions and plan aspects of the research design. As the project concludes, the team jointly interprets and communicates research results, increasing the impact and translatability of the outcomes, with the goal of improving care for everyone impacted by a melanoma diagnosis.
Collaborative Approaches Driven by Community Partnerships in Research
The MRP solidified this collaborative approach to melanoma research by initiating the Melanoma Academy in fiscal year 2021. The academy, led by a director and deputy director who are experts in melanoma research and patient care, supports early-career investigators under the mentorship of established melanoma researchers. Patients, survivors and caregivers make up the academy’s community panel. Veterans serve on the academy panel to capture the disease burden in the military.
“The opportunity to work as a team offers key synergies: it highlights and broadens the range of questions we need to answer, it forces scientists to constantly question the premise as well as approaches of their work, and it facilitates communicating results in ways that force researchers to focus on the practical value of the project,” David Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital and Director of the Melanoma Academy, said.
According to Alicia Rowell, the caregiver of a melanoma survivor and member of the Melanoma Academy's community panel, establishing connections through the academy is particularly impactful for non-clinician researchers who may not otherwise interact directly with the melanoma community.
“It’s so critical for [researchers] to hear from the people who will receive their medications, take part in their clinical trials, and benefit from their work,” Rowell said.
Unique Perspectives Capture Unmet Patient Needs in Rare Melanomas
The MRP also funds patient-centered melanoma research through the Focused Program Award – Rare Melanomas, an award mechanism that strongly encourages researchers to collaborate with military or Veteran communities and supports synergistic, multidisciplinary research programs addressing important questions relevant to rare melanomas. Rare melanoma subtypes represent less than 10% of melanoma diagnoses and can present with distinct characteristics compared to melanoma of the skin, making prevention, diagnosis and treatment challenging. Uveal melanoma is one example.
“Patients diagnosed with uveal melanoma are critically dependent on advancements in science. That is why we engage in research at as many levels as possible,” Bettina Ryll, M.D., Ph.D., said.
Ryll is a patient-focused team member on a fiscal year 2022 Focused Program Award – Rare Melanomas led by Marc-Henri Stern, M.D., Ph.D., at the Institut Curie in Paris, France. Ryll’s experience with melanoma stems from her husband’s stage 4 uveal melanoma diagnosis in 2011. Since her husband’s death in 2021, Ryll works with investigators to improve the impact of research projects for patients diagnosed with rare melanoma and their family members.
According to Stern, the support and encouragement of team members with direct knowledge of the impact of melanoma, like Ryll, were crucial to shaping the final goal of the project.
“Comprehensively communicating scientific facts and projects to patients’ representatives and patients was a challenge for us, but also a very important reminder that our outcomes in basic science should translate into benefits for patients diagnosed with uveal melanoma,” Stern said.
Stern, Ryll and their team are investigating inherited genetic factors contributing to the development of uveal melanoma. The researchers plan to examine more than 100 cases of uveal melanoma in families, and thousands more individual samples, to identify potential genetic makers that could predispose someone to the disease. If successful, this research could lead to improvements in genetic counseling and blood-based tests to predict disease progression for better clinical management. Research findings could also identify new targets for drug development or vaccine therapies.
Since the MRP began encouraging these partnerships in fiscal year 2021, the program invested $23.7 million into 14 awards with collaborations between scientists and members of the melanoma community.
“At the CDMRP, we see first-hand how much researchers and clinicians learn from community members during peer and programmatic review,” Amie Bunker, Ph.D., a program manager at the CDMRP, said. “If we can encourage those relationships from the beginning, during the development of research projects, then the outcomes of funded projects could provide even more benefits to people impacted by a melanoma diagnosis, including Service Members, Veterans, and their Families.”
Read more about resources for establishing collaborative research approaches with the melanoma community https://cdmrp.health.mil/mrp/pdfs/FY25%20CDMRP%20FOA-FAQ_27May%20with%20links.pdf.
For more information about open MRP funding opportunities, read the program announcements https://cdmrp.health.mil/funding/mrp.
For more information about the MRP, visit https://cdmrp.health.mil/mrp/default.
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2025 08:33 |
| Story ID: | 544358 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 42 |
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