Novel genes associated with malignant melanoma but not benign melanocytic lesions.
OBJECTIVE
Cutaneous melanoma is a common, aggressive cancer with increasing incidence. The identification of melanoma-specific deregulated genes could provide molecular markers for lymph node staging assays and further insight into melanoma tumorigenesis.


METHODS
Total RNA isolated from 45 primary melanoma, 18 benign skin nevi, and 7 normal skin tissue specimens were analyzed on an Affymetrix Hu133A microarray containing 22,000 probe sets.


RESULTS
Hierarchical clustering revealed a distinct separation of the melanoma samples from the benign and normal specimens. Novel genes associated with malignant melanoma were identified. Differential gene expression of two melanoma-specific genes, PLAB and L1CAM, were tested by a one-step quantitative reverse transcription-PCR assay on primary malignant melanoma, benign nevi, and normal skin samples, as well as on malignant melanoma lymph node metastasis and melanoma-free lymph nodes. The performance of the markers was compared with conventional melanoma markers such as tyrosinase, gp100, and MART1.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study systematically identified novel melanoma-specific genes and showed the feasibility of using a combination of PLAB and L1CAM in a reverse transcription-PCR assay to differentiate clinically relevant samples containing benign or malignant melanocytes.
Talantov
Dmitri
D
Veridex, LLC, a Johnson & Johnson Company, San Diego, California 92121, USA.
Mazumder
Abhijit
A
Yu
Jack X
JX
Briggs
Thomas
T
Jiang
Yuqiu
Y
Backus
John
J
Atkins
David
D
Wang
Yixin
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008544:Melanocytes / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D008545:Melanoma / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor