title: New developments in biomarkers for melanoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Therapy of malignant melanoma recently experienced remarkable advances with the introduction of two treatment regimens, gene mutation-based therapies with signaling pathway inhibitors (kinase inhibitors) and treatments with immune modulators. Both strategies prolong patients' survival but still have specific limitations, demanding the identification of additional genetic and immunological biomarkers as predictors of treatment response and prognosis. New developments in that field are summarized in this review.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Activating oncogene mutations are important melanoma biomarkers. They predict responsiveness to kinase inhibitor therapies and have therapy independent prognostic relevance. Epigenetic alterations (DNA methylation, chromatin remodeling, and noncoding RNA) in melanoma are emerging as potentially valuable biomarkers. With the successful introduction of immunotherapies for melanoma, interest in immunological biomarkers has grown. Tumor-reactive cytotoxic T cells from patients' peripheral blood were recently proposed to predict prognosis and response to immunotherapy. A superior immune profile assessment could be achieved by combining a detailed characterization of a tumor's immune cell infiltrate with its (immune) gene signature.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Genetic melanoma markers have already become clinically relevant. We expect both their role and that of immunological biomarkers to increase significantly in the next few years, enabling personalized therapy with optimal treatment selection for individual tumors.
authors: Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors: Klaus G
authors: KG
authors: Griewank
authors: Selma
authors: S
authors: Ugurel
authors: Dirk
authors: D
authors: Schadendorf
authors: Annette
authors: A
authors: Paschen
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D057890:Epigenomics / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000235:genetics; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor