Global Gene Expression Fails to Discriminate Thin Melanomas with Poor Outcomes

Melanoma is the fifth-most common cancer diagnosed in the United States with a dramatic increase in incidence among both men and women. Most melanomas present as thin lesions (1.0mm) and have a good prognosis. However a small percentage of patients (5-10%) with thin lesions recur or metastasize. The aim of our study was to elucidate which thin melanomas (< 1.0 mm thickness) have the propensity to metastasize to regional lymph nodes or distant sites. Our focus was analyzing gene expression as a whole. We sought to identify a distinct pattern of gene expression within thin melanomas that were known to have eventually metastasized to regional lymph nodes or distant sites, from those that followed the typical course with good response to wide local excision alone.

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