title: Molecular classification of cutaneous malignant melanoma by gene expression profiling.
abstract: The most common human cancers are malignant neoplasms of the skin. Incidence of cutaneous melanoma is rising especially steeply, with minimal progress in non-surgical treatment of advanced disease. Despite significant effort to identify independent predictors of melanoma outcome, no accepted histopathological, molecular or immunohistochemical marker defines subsets of this neoplasm. Accordingly, though melanoma is thought to present with different 'taxonomic' forms, these are considered part of a continuous spectrum rather than discrete entities. Here we report the discovery of a subset of melanomas identified by mathematical analysis of gene expression in a series of samples. Remarkably, many genes underlying the classification of this subset are differentially regulated in invasive melanomas that form primitive tubular networks in vitro, a feature of some highly aggressive metastatic melanomas. Global transcript analysis can identify unrecognized subtypes of cutaneous melanoma and predict experimentally verifiable phenotypic characteristics that may be of importance to disease progression.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Genetics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. mbittner@nhgri.nih.gov
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bittner
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meltzer
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seftor
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hendrix
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Radmacher
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yakhini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ben-Dor
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sampas
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dougherty
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marincola
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gooden
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lueders
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Glatfelter
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pollock
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carpten
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gillanders
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leja
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dietrich
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beaudry
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Berens
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alberts
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sondak
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014604:Uveal Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger