Testing a supplement to prevent cancer spread after eye melanoma

This trial is testing melatonin—a naturally occurring supplement—to see if it can help prevent cancer from spreading after you've been treated for uveal melanoma, a rare cancer inside the eye. About one-third of patients with this type of cancer develop spread to other parts of the body within 15 years, even after successful eye treatment. The study wants to know if taking melatonin for 5 years might stop or delay that spread.

Once uveal melanoma spreads to other parts of the body—usually the liver—treatment options are very limited and survival is short. Unlike other types of skin cancer, which have improved treatments in recent years, uveal melanoma has fewer effective options once it spreads. This medication is being tested as a way to prevent that spread from happening in the first place.