Revisiting determinants of prognosis in cutaneous melanoma.

ABSTRACT: The American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system for cutaneous melanoma is based on primary tumor thickness and the presence of ulceration, mitoses, lymph node spread, and distant metastases as determinants of prognosis. Although this cutaneous melanoma staging system has evolved over time to more accurately reflect patient prognosis, improvements are still needed, because current understanding of the particular factors (genetic mutation, expression alteration, host response, etc) that are critical for predicting patient outcomes is incomplete. Given the clinical and biologic heterogeneity of primary melanomas, new prognostic tools are needed to more precisely identify patients who are most likely to develop advanced disease. Such tools would affect clinical surveillance strategies an

SUBMITTER: Weiss SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4666819 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature