Melanoma Review: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Diagnosis and Staging

Abstract

Study Aim: Cutaneous melanoma accounts for approximately 4% of all skin cancers diagnosis each year in the USA but is responsible for 75% of skin cancer deaths. Physicians need to have an up to date knowledge about the epidemiology, risk factors, and clinical features of melanoma in order to make an early diagnosis and provide appropriate management decisions to improve survival in this aggressive malignancy. We will be presenting an extensive, up to date, literature review of cutaneous melanoma including the epidemiology, risk factors, diagnosis and staging. Method: An extensive literature review was performed using the following search engines: Pubmed, Ovid, Miromedex, and Dynamed. We limited our literature search to research papers written in English using the following keywords: cutaneous melanoma, epidemiology of melanoma, risk factors for melanoma, diagnosis of melanoma, clinical classification and staging of melanoma. Results: As a result of our extensive literature review we present an up to date review on the epidemiology, pathogenesis, risk factors, diagnosis, classification and staging of cutaneous melanoma. Conclusion: Physicians need to have an up to date knowledge about the epidemiology, risk factors, and clinical features in order to make an early diagnosis and provide appropriate management decisions in order to improve the survival patients with this aggressive malignancy.

MicroRNA-211 Loss Promotes Metabolic Vulnerability and BRAF Inhibitor Sensitivity in Melanoma

“…Malignant melanoma is a common, life-threatening, and poor prognosis cancer with a high mortality burden (Arrangoiz et al, 2016, Shain and Bastian, 2016). Despite recent therapeutic advances, particularly with immunotherapy, malignant melanoma remains difficult to control and has a dismal prognosis when the disease is late-stage.…”

MicroRNA-605 functions as a tumor suppressor by targeting INPP4B in melanoma

“…Melanoma, a cancer derived from melanocytes, is the most aggressive skin cancer and responsible for 80% of skin cancerrelated deaths (1). According to a report from American Cancer Society, there are an estimated 76,380 new cases of melanoma and 10,130 melanoma-related deaths in the United States in 2016 (2).…”

Exosome-mediated MIR211 modulates tumor microenvironment via the DUSP6-ERK5 axis and contributes to BRAFV600E inhibitor resistance in melanoma

“…Malignant melanoma has a high mortality burden if not detected early (1,2). The histopathological differentiation of benign pigmented lesions (melanocytic and Spitz nevi) and malignant melanoma often presents a diagnostic challenge, driving recent efforts to develop novel biomarkers (3,4).…”