Jefferson’s Melanoma Research Institute: Discovery Driving Innovation

Melanoma is a notoriously aggressive form of cancer that spreads quickly from the primary tumor. Despite recent therapeutic advances, the incidence rate of melanoma is rising across the country, and many patients do not respond to current therapies or eventually relapse.

Metastatic melanoma research has been largely overlooked and underfunded. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), metastatic melanoma accounts for only 2.2% of overall research funding. Understanding how melanomas adapt and develop resistance to therapeutics is critical, and philanthropy is a vital catalyst to launching high-impact melanoma research. 

Jefferson is the national destination of choice for many patients with advanced stages of melanoma. The Melanoma Research Institute of Excellence (MRIE) is a comprehensive program that brings together two internationally recognized specialties within Jefferson’s NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC)—uveal melanoma and skin melanoma.

Over the course of more than 20 years, Jefferson’s melanoma team has established a robust research program unmatched by any other in the world, and achieved great advances in both targeted, and immunotherapy treatments. MRIE programs offer an unmatched breadth of treatment options with a proven track record for pioneering bench-to-bedside innovations, and first-in-field therapies.

The program pairs innovative scientists with the world’s foremost clinicians in the discipline, and is converting discoveries into clinical innovations more rapidly than ever before, ensuring that our patients have access to next-generation therapies for these notoriously complex cancers. Every new breakthrough brings us closer to new insights, detection methodologies and treatments. And every breakthrough is funded by friends like you.