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Genetics of metastasis: melanoma and other cancers

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Abstract

Melanoma is a malignant neoplasm of melanocytes that accounts for the majority of skin cancer deaths despite comprising less than 5% of all cutaneous malignancies. Its incidence has increased faster than that of any other cancer over the past half-century and the annual costs of treatment in the United States alone have risen rapidly. Although the majority of primary melanomas are cured with local excision, metastatic melanoma historically carries a grim prognosis, with a median survival of 9 months and a long-term survival rate of 10%. Given the urgent need to develop treatment strategies for metastatic melanoma and the explosion of genetic technologies over the past 20 years, there has been extensive research into the genetic alterations that cause melanocytes to become malignant. More recently, efforts have focused on the genetic changes that drive melanoma metastasis. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge of the genetics of primary cutaneous and ocular melanoma, the genetic changes associated with metastasis in melanoma and other cancer types, and non-genetic factors that may contribute to metastasis.

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Acknowledgements

NT’s contribution to this publication was made possible by CTSA Grant Number TL1 TR001864 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NIH.

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Author notes

  1. Noel Turner and Olivia Ware have contributed equally to the manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Noel Turner & Marcus Bosenberg

  2. Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA

    Olivia Ware

  3. Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Marcus Bosenberg

  4. Department of Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Marcus Bosenberg

  5. Genomics, Genetics and Epigenetics Program, Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, CT, USA

    Marcus Bosenberg

Authors
  1. Noel Turner
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  2. Olivia Ware
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  3. Marcus Bosenberg
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Correspondence to Marcus Bosenberg.

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Conflict of interest

MB serves as a consultant for Eli Lilly and Company. NT and OW declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Presented at the 7th International Cancer Metastasis Symposium in San Francisco, CA from April 20–22, 2017.

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Turner, N., Ware, O. & Bosenberg, M. Genetics of metastasis: melanoma and other cancers. Clin Exp Metastasis 35, 379–391 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-018-9893-y

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