Of the seven most common cancers in the US, melanoma is the only one whose incidence is increasing [1]. The fight against cancer has come a long way, as evidenced by the recent breakthroughs in personalized (and precision) medicine, but perhaps the most effective management of cancer is its prevention. Dr. Frank Meyskens, Professor of Medicine, Biological Chemistry, Public Health, and Epidemiology and Founding Director (1989-2013) of the NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine, is a pioneer in “chemoprevention” who uses dietary and standard chemical compounds to prevent human cancer. His influences in the cancer field are many. He gained national and international recognition—especially for his early work in the 1980’s—on the chemopreventive effects of retinoids, a class of chemical compounds that are chemically related to Vitamin A. Based on 25 years of basic laboratory and translational studies, early phase clinical trials of difluoromethylornithine (a repurposed drug), and the very promising results of a phase III trial to prevent colon cancer, Dr. Meyskens in 2008 co-founded Cancer Prevention Pharmaceuticals, the first company to be dedicated to cancer prevention. A prominent translational medical oncologist with a deep basic science foundation, Dr. Meyskens has not only done extensive studies on colon cancer, but has also treated melanoma patients for the past 35 years. He now hopes to expand this work, as well as to explore the unique and less known properties and practical applications of melanin (the pigment that determines skin color).    

Basic science demands a long period of time to become clinically applicable, and much of Dr. Meyskens’ phenomenal expertise is grounded in his ability to translate long-term basic research into clinical trials. Dr. Meyskens has spent most of the last two decades trying to understand the effect of oxygen on the regulation of transcriptional factors, which translate DNA information into specific proteins that modulate beneficial phenotypic properties of the cell, and when awry, lead to cancer formation and drug resistance. 

To address fundamental questions such as, “Why do people relapse five years later?”, Dr. Meyskens continues to collaborate with colleagues at UCI and many other institutions who helped discover much about the biological properties of early melanomagenesis. He plans to identify candidate compounds to target pathways that lead to cell dormancy and quiescence, thereby evading otherwise successful therapies. Currently Dr. Meyskens and his team are also actively screening certain types of compounds that affect these specific pathways. They are hoping to expand this work to fundamentally and clinically advance research in melanoma, other cancer areas, and diseased states like neurodegenerative diseases. An overall five page NIH Biosketch is available.

Current research includes:

• Therapeutic Prevention (“Chemoprevention”) of Human Cancer: Modeled after significant successes in the management of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), in which the regulated management of high blood pressure and cholesterol has made a very large difference in decreasing the mortality from heart disease. This line of research aims to find similar applications in cancer.
• New Approaches to the Prevention of Melanoma: When Dr. Meyskens was researching the basic mechanisms of transcription, parallel discoveries led to his studies of redox control during the early events of melanoma. This recognition has led to the investigations of a whole new series of molecules in these pathways, as well as inhibitors of these processes. Dr. Meyskens has recently focused on such pathways that will help advance therapeutic prevention of melanoma.
• Melanin, the “Molecule of the Century”: Melanin may well be the most neglected of all major molecules in biology, but it is a difficult-to-study molecule that is important in melanomagenesis and diseases of numerous organs, such as the eyes, heart, ears, possibly the brain and neurodegenerative states, and probably aging (Dr. Meyskens poses the question, “Why do a man’s eyebrows frequently remain black long after the scalp and beard turn grey?). It is also Dr. Meyskens’ hope to break through the entirely novel field of melanin research, where he can explore its unique properties and potential applications as a bio-battery, solar energy conversion, and in electronic signals.