Epigenetic markers of prognosis in melanoma

Prognostic molecular markers are urgently needed for allowing to discriminate the clinical course of disease of melanoma patients, which is highly heterogeneous and unpredictable also within a specific clinicopathological stage and substage of disease. Alterations in DNA methylation have been reported to be widely present in cutaneous melanoma, profoundly impacting its biology. In line with this notion, we have identified methylation markers as independent prognostic factors in stage IIIC melanoma patients. In this chapter we describe the measurement of the methylation of the Long Interspersed Nucleotide Element-1 sequences in laser capture microdissected tumor tissues as a prognostic tool in stage III melanoma patients, which could help in achieving a more appropriate and patient-tailored clinical management of cutaneous melanoma.