Cancer Diagnostics with DNA Microarrays (Knudsen/Cancer Diagnostics with DNA Microarrays) || Melanoma

✍ Scribed by Knudsen, Steen

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 161 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 0471784079
• DOI: 10.1002/0470041102.ch19

✦ Synopsis

Melanoma is a cancer that originates in the melanocytes, the melanin producing cells in the epidermis (Figure 19.1). Melanomas have a high potential for metastasis. Uveal melanoma is a melanoma that originates in the eye.

Cancers of the skin account for more than 50% of all cancers (American Cancer Society, 2004). Of these, 4% are melanomas, but they account for 79% of skin cancer deaths, illustrating the aggressive nature of the melanomas.

Diagnosis of melanoma is by tissue biopsy, and diagnosis of metastasis is typically by fine needle aspiration from a metastasis, for example, to a lymph node.

Current treatment of melanoma includes surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.