title: Melanoma molecular classes and prognosis in the postgenomic era.
abstract: Gene expression profiling is a powerful method to classify human tumours on the basis of biological aggressiveness, response to therapy, and outcome for the patient, but its application in melanoma lags behind that of other cancers. From more than 100 articles available on the topic, we selected 14 focusing on patients' outcome. We review and briefly discuss salient findings, and list ten reasons why melanoma molecular classes are not yet used in clinical diagnosis and prognosis. The available evidence suggests that we are on the verge of creating a framework for the use of melanoma molecular classes in prognosis, but so far there is little consensus to put together informative diagnostic and prognostic gene sets.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Immunology, Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tremante
authors.forename: Agnese
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ginebri
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lo Monaco
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Frascione
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Filippo
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Terrenato
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Benevolo
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mottolese
authors.forename: Edoardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pescarmona
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Visca
authors.forename: Pier Giorgio
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Natali
authors.forename: Patrizio
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giacomini
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D011379:Prognosis; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor