Gene-expression profiling in human cutaneous melanoma

Genomic technology presents new and exciting opportunities to study complex human diseases. Several types of genomic analysis are helping to elucidate the biology of important human cancers. One of these, gene expression profiling, provides a more comprehensive view of the consequences of the genetic changes in cancer cells than was previously available. In addition to detailing the expression patterns of thousands of genes simultaneously, this exploding field of research has begun to build a new ‘molecular taxonomy’ of cancer and to identify novel disease genes for many human cancers, including cutaneous melanoma. Whether this new information will lead to improved treatments and prolonged survival for cancer patients remains to be determined. Here, we review the use of complementary DNA microarray technology to study gene expression patterns in cutaneous melanoma and highlight recent advances concerning the identification of novel melanoma disease-related genes. The fundamentals of microarray technology and analysis have been extensively discussed, and readers are referred to several recent reviews in this area.