Biomarkers in melanoma

Abstract

Biomarkers are tumour- or host-related factors that correlate with tumour biological behaviour and patient prognosis. High-throughput analytical techniques—DNA and RNA microarrays—have identified numerous possible biomarkers, but their relevance to melanoma progression, clinical outcome and the selection of optimal treatment strategies still needs to be established. The review discusses a possible molecular basis for predictive tissue biomarkers such as melanoma thickness, ulceration and mitotic activity, and provides a list of promising new biomarkers identified from tissue microarrays that needs confirmation by independent, prospectively collected clinical data sets. In addition, common predictive serum biomarkers—lactate dehydrogenase, S100B and melanoma-inhibiting activity—as well as selected investigational serum biomarkers such as TA90IC and YKL-40 are also reviewed. A more accurate, therapeutically predictive classification of human melanomas and selection of patient populations that would profit from therapeutic interventions are among the major challenges expected to be addressed in the future.

Co-regulated expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 and transforming growth factor-β in melanoma development and progression

“…In melanoma, prognostic markers are needed that would help to refine the risk of progression, assess the clinical outcome and select optimal treatment strategies (1)(2)(3). In normal epithelial cells, transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) acts as a strong inhibitor of cell growth (4).…”

Structural Basis of Ribosomal S6 Kinase 1 (RSK1) Inhibition by S100B Protein

“…In malignant melanomas, S100B expression is highly elevated, which can be used as a prognostic marker for the disease (8). Moreover, S100B is being explored as a therapeutic target for treating melanomas by inhibiting its protein-protein interactions (9).…”

Circulating Melanoma Cells

“…Although many of these were identified using primary tissue or melanoma cell lines, they have been used for the multitude of CTC studies conducted thus far 72,[101][102][103] . For qRT-PCR analysis of CTCs include SILV, MLANA, TYR, MAGEA3 and MAGE-A10 25,[62][63][64]72,104 , or more recently, ABCB5 86,87 105 .…”

“…For qRT-PCR analysis of CTCs include SILV, MLANA, TYR, MAGEA3 and MAGE-A10 25,[62][63][64]72,104 , or more recently, ABCB5 86,87 105 . From high throughput analyses of melanoma gene expression, several key progression pathways have been identified 38,39,103,106,107 but remain to be tested as informative for CTC analysis. Key amongst these pathways are: tyrosine kinase receptors (TKRs) (e.g.…”