The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) and The American Cancer Society (ACS) have announced the first recipients of their new research grants, reports PRNewswire. The grants have been set up as a fund for researchers working on reducing some of the rare side effects of checkpoint inhibitor cancer treatments.

Checkpoint inhibitor drugs for treating cancer are a form of immunotherapy treatment that helps the immune system to recognise and fight tumour cells, by blocking the proteins that usually prevent this from happening. The drugs are particularly effective for treating melanoma and are also show promise for treating other cancers, such as Hodgkin lymphoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, kidney, bladder, neck, head, lung, and MSI-H cancers. However, some people get side effects from these drugs, which can include fatigue, nausea, skin rashes, appetite loss, diarrhoea, and changes to the functioning of the liver, glands, and kidneys. These side effects can occasionally be very serious, so more research into how to reduce or prevent them is needed.

The MRA and ACS partnership, created to provide researchers with grants, was formed last June. They award grants to scientists whose research is likely to lead to better outcomes and reduce adverse reactions for patients given checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy drugs. The research tends to focus on ways to predict which patients will develop severe side effects, and how to reduce these effects. The first grants will go into effect on 1st June 2018.

Two researchers have been awarded the first ACS and MRA Multidisciplinary Team Awards, and three have been given the first ACS and MRA Pilot Awards. Among the multidisciplinary team projects supported is Doctor David Gerber’s plan to investigate whether pre-existing autoimmunity can increase the risk of immune reactions to immunotherapy treatments. This research hoped to take the form of a large clinical trial, will build on a smaller pilot study of patients taking checkpoint inhibitor drugs.

One of the Pilot Awards will go to Doctor Bianca Santomasso, from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute, who will investigate under-researched adverse reactions called neurotoxicities. These affect people’s nervous systems and brains, and Dr Santomasso will investigate whether there is an association between certain neurotoxicities and checkpoint inhibitors. This could provide a foundation for creating better guidelines for identifying and treating these events.

In total, the Melanoma Research Alliance and American Cancer Society grants total $2.6 million, and the research that they enable will work towards reducing the side effects of immunotherapies.

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