title: Cutaneous melanoma: a model to study cancer metastasis.
abstract: Nodal status in melanoma is a critically important prognostic factor for patient outcome. The survival rate drops to <10% when melanoma has spread beyond the regional lymph nodes and includes visceral involvement. In general, the process of melanoma metastasis is progressive in that dissemination of melanoma from the primary site to the regional lymph nodes occurs prior to systemic disease. The goal of this review article is to describe melanoma as a clinical model to study cancer metastasis. A future challenge is to develop a molecular taxonomy to subgroup melanoma patients at various stages of tumor progression for more accurate targeted treatment.
authors.affiliation: Center for Melanoma Research and Treatment and Department of Surgery, California Pacific Medical Center and Research Institute, San Francisco, California 94115, USA. leongsx@cpmcri.org
authors.forename: Stanley P L
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Leong
authors.forename: Jeffrey E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Gershenwald
authors.forename: Seng-Jaw
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Soong
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schadendorf
authors.forename: Ahmad A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Tarhini
authors.forename: Sanjiv
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agarwala
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hauschild
authors.forename: Christopher W M
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Soon
authors.forename: Adil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daud
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kashani-Sabet
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D008954:Models, Biological; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy / Q000379:methods; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor