Evolution of Metabolic and Immune Dysfunction in In-transit Melanoma

June 8, 2026 updated by: Yana Najjar
Melanoma in-transit metastases (ITMs) continue to represent a therapeutic dilemma, in that no standard method of treatment has been uniformly adopted. The complexity and heterogeneity of patient and disease characteristics, including the location and number of ITMs presents a barrier to a one size fits all treatment approach. Treatment of patients with limited regional disease remains challenging. Patients are typically treated with a combination of surgery, regional therapy, systemic therapy. Data on the management of ITMs is limited, even with the availability of immunotherapy (IMT). This study will use the unique etiology of ITMs to facilitate the understanding of how individual lesions metabolically and immunologically evolve as they move away from the primary tumor site. It is hypothesize that as ITMs move away from the primary melanoma site each will harbor progressively hypermetabolic tumor cells and a harsher microenvironment.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

This study will use a novel platform to profile patient biopsies, including microscopic analysis, flow cytometry for phenotyping, metabolic, and functional analyses, and metabolic profiling by Seahorse analysis to understand the unique etiology of ITMs to understand how individual melanoma lesions metabolically and immunologically evolve as they move away from the primary tumor site. A large amount of translational data is able to be derived from from an individual tissue biopsies. This study will utilize this platform to extensively evaluate 2-5 (melanoma) in-transit metastases (ITMs) per patient. It is hypothesized that as ITMs move away from the primary melanoma site each will harbor progressively hypermetabolic tumor cells and a harsher microenvironment. Each ITM station will be deeply profiled using metabolic assays, flow cytometry, and highly multiplexed immunofluorescent microscopy including, to interrogate the metabolic profiles of tumor and immune system in individual melanoma ITMs, and, to Determine tumor:immune interaction in the context of hypoxia using high-dimensional imaging. Using high throughput sequencing technologies, it will determined how tumor and immune cells interact and evolve during the course of transit in ITMs (as these cells become more metabolically and immunologically suppressive as they migrate further from the primary site). The clonal evolution analysis of tumor cells through and pimonidazole-enabled single cell RNA-sequencing will be used to identify transcriptomic changes in tumor, immune, and stromal cells correlated with hypoxia exposure.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
20

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Amy Rose, RN, BSN
  • Phone Number: 412-647-8587
  • Email: kennaj@UPMC.EDU

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15232
        • Recruiting
        • UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Yana Najjar, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Patients with a histological diagnosis of melanoma

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Be willing and able to provide written informed consent for the trial.
  2. Be ≥ 18 years of age on day of signing informed consent.
  3. A histological diagnosis of melanoma and at least two in-transit lesions at distinct distances from the primary site. Patients may be enrolled on the basis of a diagnosis of in-transit disease by a treating melanoma oncologist.
  4. Cutaneous, mucosal or uveal melanoma are permitted.
  5. Patients may be on treatment or treatment naïve.
  6. Female patients of childbearing potential must have a negative urine or serum pregnancy test within 7 days from the time of pimonidazole administration.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Subjects with in-transit disease that is not amenable to biopsy per the treating physician are excluded.
  2. Subjects with known chronic immunosuppression (such as biologic agents like remicade, mycophenolate, methotrexate, prednisone >20 mg daily).
  3. Subjects who are known to be HIV+, Hep B or Hep C positive.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort

Group / Cohort

A group or subgroup of participants in an observational study that is assessed for biomedical or health outcomes.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Pimonidazole
Single dose of 0.5 gm/m^2 of pimonidazole (approximately 13 mg/kg)
Drug: Pimonidazole
Pimonidazole is not used with therapeutic intent, and has a non-hazardous designation. It has been widely used for in-vivo evaluation of intratumor hypoxia, and patients will take PO pimonidazole before the scheduled biopsy. Patients receive an oral dose of pimonidazole, a safe chemical tracer up to 24 hours prior to biopsy. Pimonidazole allows for true hypoxia staining; pimonidazole binds hypoxic proteins covalently, creating an antigen that facilitates the imaging, flow cytometry, and scRNA-seq experiments proposed. Pimonidazole has been previously used in patients and is safe and well tolerated, without anticipated adverse events.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Immunometabolic profiling
Time Frame: At baseline
Immunometabolic profiling of individual microenvironments in ITMs (in-transit metastases) using flow cytometry via T cell subsets, markers of activation/exhaustion, and metabolic insufficiency (mitochondrial mass, glucose uptake capacity, and hypoxia by pimonidazole staining.
At baseline
Tumor cell metabolism
Time Frame: At baseline
Tumor cells metabolism of ITMs (in-transit metastases) will be profiled using the Seahorse flux analyzer to measure oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR).
At baseline
Imaging of individual ITM stations
Time Frame: At baseline
CODEX imaging will be conducted on sections from each station using extensive phenotyping panels.
At baseline
hypoxia exposure analyses
Time Frame: At baseline
Akoya Biosciences' CODEX analysis suite and custom ImageJ plugins will be used to determine proximity of cells to one another, coincidence with hypoxic areas, and accumulation of regulatory/dysfunctional populations.
At baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Whole exome sequencing of tumor cells
Time Frame: At baseline
Whole exome sequencing will be performed to identify mutations in tumor cells isolated from each lesion. Analysis will be in an 'intrapatient' manner as a function of distance from the primary site.
At baseline
Clonal evolution analysis of individual ITMs
Time Frame: At baseline
Mutations will be used to construct trees revealing clonal representation and diversity at each station. The goal is to determine how migration away from the primary site affects a tumor's heterogeneity in terms of tumor cells.
At baseline
Cellular heterogeneity and transcriptomic state
Time Frame: At baseline
The composition of each ITM tumor microenvironment will be analyzed using dimension reduction strategies, in collaboration with a bioinformatics core. Each biopsy sample will be sequenced simultaneously but hashed separately, allowing all ITMs to be compared in one run. Clusters will be identified using lineage-defining genes and then transcriptomic states identified within each cluster.
At baseline
TCR clonotype and trajectory analysis
Time Frame: At baseline
5' scRNAseq will be used for identification of TCR sequences to identify individual T cell clones. Clonotypes will be revealed in each lesion, and diffusion pseudotime analyses will be employed within each ITM and between ITMs to determine differentiation states of various T cell subsets. It is thought that distant lesions will harbor more terminally differentiated T cells.
At baseline
Tumor transcriptomic states
Time Frame: At baseline
Analysis of hypoxia exposure for each cell using unique pimonidazole CITE-seq strategy also allows for the a. As hypoxia promotes the terminal differentiation of T cells, it is expected that distant ITMs will harbor more hypoxic cells and that terminally differentiated T cells will experience higher levels of hypoxia.
At baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Yana Najjar

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
Hypoxyprobe

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Yana Najjar, MD, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
February 24, 2021

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
August 31, 2029

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
August 31, 2029

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
November 23, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
December 1, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
December 8, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
June 11, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
June 8, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • HCC 20-263

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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