Genotyping of mucosal melanoma

Mucosal melanoma is rare and associated with extremely poor prognosis. Mucosal melanoma has historically been refractory to traditional therapeutic approaches. Recently molecularly based targeted drugs show great success in melanoma. The success of these drug strategies can be partially attributed to the identification of the genetic alterations responsible for the development and progression of metastatic melanoma. This review will focus on genes involved in two major mucosal melanoma-related signaling pathways, the RAS/RAF/mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3K)-AKT pathway, and detail the current understanding of their roles in melanoma progression. Additional mutations in key genes, such as KIT, GNAQ and MITF, in mucosal melanoma will also be introduced. Finally, an overview of the current targeted therapy landscape will be provided.