title: New developments in the staging of melanoma.
abstract: As the incidence of melanoma increases, so does the search for new staging techniques that may provide important prognostic information and aid in the detection of early metastatic disease. The application of molecular techniques may provide powerful new tools in this search. This review summarizes recent findings obtained by means of conventional RT-PCR, cDNA arrays, and proteomics in the investigation of human melanoma. The molecular tools discussed in this review demonstrate how global transcript and protein analysis might contribute not only to the staging of melanoma, but may hold great promise in improving the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, Arizona 85724, USA.
authors.forename: Amy C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Baruch
authors.forename: Jiaqi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Yongmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D040901:Proteomics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor