Melanoma Gets More Classy

The search for a gene expression signature to predict melanoma outcome has been long and arduous. Many patterns have been published, but do these clinically outperform traditional parameters of tumor thickness and sentinel node positivity? These investigators developed a predictive genetic signature for classifying tumors as class 1 (low risk) or class 2 (high risk) for metastasis.

Using earlier studies, they compared differences in the levels of 28 genes, including some control genes, using RT-PCR. The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate for the 164 sample training set was 91% for class 1 and 25% for class 2 (P< 0.0001), while the 5-year DFS rate for the 104 sample validation set (stage I–IV) was 97% for class 1 and 31% for class 2 (P< …