Katherine Hutchinson, a third-year graduate student in Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University, has won a $10,000 Research Scholar Award from the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation.

Combination therapy with two drugs delayed the development of treatment resistance in patients with metastatic melanoma that expresses a specific mutation in the BRAF gene.

An uncommon mutation of the BRAF gene in melanoma patients has been found to respond to a specific drug therapy, providing a rationale for routine screening and therapy in melanoma patients who harbor the BRAF L597 mutation.

An experimental melanoma drug may be beneficial for patients not eligible for targeted therapies.

Investigators at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and several other centers may be one step closer to finding out why some melanoma patients relapse after treatment with a promising new drug.