In an era of personalized medicine, disease specific biomarkers play an increasing role in the stratification of high-risk patient groups. Cutaneous malignant melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer with an ever-increasing global incidence, especially in patients under 35-years of age. Despite the excellent prognosis for patients diagnosed with early stage disease, metastatic disease still carries significant overall mortality. Biomarkers aim not only to identify high-risk patients, but also to provide potential therapeutic targets for differing patient subgroups. Furthermore, accessibility to tissue samples from a range of disease stages in malignant melanoma, unlike most other solid tissue tumours, provides the unique opportunity to explore the biology of tumour progression that may be relevant in the biology of cancer as a whole. Over the past decade, there have been major advances in targeted therapies, providing new avenues and hope to patients with this devastating disease. This review will focus on most up to date histological, serological and molecular biomarkers in malignant melanoma.
Keywords: biomarkers; cutaneous melanoma; malignancy.