Research Meeting Summaries (Ocular Melanoma)

Throughout each year, we attend the major scientific and clinical meetings for cancer and ophthalmology where we know in advance key data releases will be announced and presented for uveal melanoma studies.

We attend and summarize the live presentations of abstracts and posters, and other published abstracts. We meet with the uveal melanoma clinical and laboratory investigators and Sponsor BioPharma companies, to also learn how their research results may lead to further studies and findings.

The Research Meeting Summaries can be found in downloadable and printable PDF documents shown below. Additionally, our Research Coordinator maintains a growing list of open and reported UM clinical trials.

The 2026 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting showcased significant advances in ocular melanoma research, highlighting progress in immunotherapy, biomarker development, precision medicine, and novel treatment strategies. Presentations included encouraging long-term survival data with tebentafusp, emerging insights into circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a prognostic tool, advances in cell-based therapies, and new approaches to understanding treatment resistance and metastatic disease. Together, these studies reflect the growing momentum in ocular melanoma research and offer renewed hope for improving outcomes through earlier detection, personalized treatment strategies, and innovative therapeutic approaches.

The 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting highlighted significant progress in uveal melanoma research, with promising updates on targeted therapies, immunotherapies, cellular therapies, and emerging biomarkers. Key presentations included encouraging results from the Phase 3 darovasertib plus crizotinib trial, advances in tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, new approaches to immunotherapy, and several innovative clinical trials currently enrolling patients. Together, these findings demonstrate continued momentum toward more effective and personalized treatments for patients living with uveal melanoma.

ACIS Research Coordinator Kevin attended the 40th Anniversary Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), near Washington DC, from Nov 6-9, 2025. He had the opportunity to meet the clinical development team from IMMATICS from both Germany and the US.

In early June, A Cure In Sight attended the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. Kevin and Kristen met with oncologists from all over the world at our Exhibit, and had the ‘rare’ opportunity to meet with our medical oncologists from Thomas Jefferson University during the Uveal Melanoma Poster Session (Drs. Marlana Orloff and Takami Sato)!

The 14th CureOM Global Science Meeting was convened in Amsterdam, just prior to the Opening Ceremonies of SMR 2025. The program had 18 invited presentations from academic investigators and medical oncologists, and the leading Biopharmas and diagnostic/prognostic laboratory partners involved in uveal melanoma research. All attendees had signed confidentiality agreements regarding the presentation materials, so no report of the proceedings are provided here. The academic program chair offered the meeting will be summarized and published later in a patient-oriented format.

The ACIS UM Clinical Trials Summary is an ongoing compilation of open UM clinical studies as well as accumulated data over the last several years for each investigational or marketed drug, as data is released.

This document is updated in June and December each year, and can be downloaded and printed using the link found on our Newly-Diagnosed and Metastatic tabs.

Please note that A Cure In Sight does not offer treatment recommendations, and information provided here is not an endorsement of specific clinical trials, investigational or marketed drugs, or investigators/cancer centers.  Please share our resources in discussions with your ocular oncologist or medical oncologist or other medical professionals, who know your personal situation and can provide appropriate medical advice and recommendations in your case. If you have specific questions, please contact our Research Coordinator:  kevin@acureinsight.org

As we look back at studies posted to Clinicaltrials.gov and EudraCT websites in uveal melanoma research last year, we find a growing number of investigational agents emerging in all phases of clinical development for our disease! From our semi-annual update of our ACIS UM Clinical Trials Summary (posted to the ACIS website in December 2025), we count at least 40 open clinical studies now enrolling patients across the world:

As ACIS attends the leading oncology and ophthalmology scientific and clinical meetings each year, we summarize the presentations and abstracts in uveal melanoma, and send these written summaries to our ACIS email list and social media posts. These Research Meeting Summaries can be found
using the file links listed above.

Here are key highlights of uveal melanoma research studies reported at the 2025 scientific and clinical meetings:

ASCO (June) DYP688 (antibody drug conjugate delivering Gq/11 inhibitor)
Ph1 SAD, 60 Met UM patients (60% 2 prior Tx, 33% prior tebentafusp).
No DLTs, AE tolerable. One patient had obtained Complete Response,
10 Partial Responses, 26 achieving stable disease (62% clinical benefit).

ESMO (Oct)CHEMOSAT/HEPZATO alternating with ipilimumab + nivolumab in 76 first-line MetUM patients
Median PFS (mos):   Combination group 12.8 vs. PHP alone group: 8.3  …Hazard Ratio 0.34, P<0.001
1yr OS:  Combination group: 82.8%  vs. PHP alone group: 82.2%
2yrs OS: Combination group: 49.6% vs. PHP alone group: 22.1%
Median OS (mos): Combination group: 23.1 vs. PHP alone group: 19.6 …Hazard Ratio: 0.39, P = 0.006
Best Overall Response Rate: Combination group: 76.3% (5 CR, 24 PR) vs. PHP group: 39.5% (1 CR. 14 PR)  …P < 0.001

IMA-203/anzu-cel (TCR Tcells, to PRAME) Phase I results among 16 MetUM patients (med. 2 prior Tx,
81% liver/extrahep. mets, and 64% had prior tebe)  With a single dose, 67% confirmed ORR
and all 16 patients had tumor shrinkage. Med. DoR 11 mos, Med. PFS 8.5 mos,
Med. OS 16.2 months (range 3.2+ to 34.2+). Rapid engraftment (Tmax: 3 days)
and sustained persistence of IMA203 T cells (up to 903 days) indicating durable in vivo exposure.

SMR (Oct)  Initial OS Results from the OptimUM-01 Ph. 2 study: darovasertib + crizotinib    
(both oral tablets) in 1st line Met UM ‘HLA negative’ patients.
Among 41 efficacy-evaluable patients, Median OS 21.1 mos, Med. PFS 7 mos,
Confirmed ORR 34%, med. DOR 9 months and disease control rate (DCR) of 90%.
Ideaya indicates Ph. 2 portion is still open, and currently recruiting HLA*A2:01 positive patients.

SITC (Nov)  Univ Pittsburgh TIL update:  Total of 31 TIL-treated patients evaluable for efficacy
(71% liver and extrahep. mets, median 2 prior Tx, 61% prior ICI, 32% prior tebe).
Objective Response Rate (ORR) was 23%, with 7 patients having Partial Responses,
and median duration of response was 10.8 months.
Among 19 patients who had “reactive TILs” following infusion,
the ORR was 36.8% and with 7 PRs observed,

supporting the observation that potency of the TIL infusion product may impact more favorably on efficacy outcomes

Occasionally, we also send Press Announcements from these meetings, which highlight late-breaking results for from clinical studies. In 2025, we sent PR announcements from several BioPharmas and the study investigators as UM data was being presented at major meetings, including these major clinical study results reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology in Berlin (October 2025):
– Dr. Ellen Kapiteijen presented Phase II results for Chemosat/Hepzato® alternating with ipilimumab and nivolumab
– Dr. Sapna Patel presented initial Phase I results for anzu-cel, PRAME-directed T-Cell therapy