Altered molecular pathways identify different histotypes within melanoma progression (original) (raw)

BACKGROUND: malignant cutaneous melanoma originates in melanocytes, the pigmentproducing cells of the skin and eye. This entity is relatively rare compared to other skin cancers (< 5%), but still it is responsible for 80% of all skin cancer-related deaths. AIMS: to identify molecular signatures of melanoma progression and to understand if dysplastic nevi can be or not considered as an intermediate step within such progression. METHODS: excisional biopsies from 18 common melanocytic nevi (CMN), 8 primary radial growth phase melanomas (RGPM), 15 primary vertical growth phase melanomas (VGPM), 5 melanoma metastases (MTS) and 11 dysplastic nevi (DN) were collected and global gene expression profiling of the tissues was performed using whole genome oligomicroarrays. Differentially expressed genes for each progression step (CMN vs RGPM, RGPM vs VGPM and VGPM vs MTS) were identified, and validation of selected transcripts by qRT-PCR was performed on an independent cohort of fixed sample...

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