Genes involved in melanoma susceptibility and progression.

Despite the ever-increasing levels of biologic complexity, major strides have been made in the past few years in three fundamental areas of research critical to understanding the biology of melanoma development and progression: 1) identifying a potential susceptibility gene on 9p21 and defining its role in control of the cell cycle; 2) the cataloguing of cytoplasmic, cell surface, and secreted proteins that play major roles in the ability of melanoma cells to migrate from the primary tumor to distant sites; and 3) the elucidation of the interconnected signal transduction pathways that couple the functions of these proteins to basic cellular processes such as architecture, locomotion, and gene transcription. This review briefly discusses each of these areas.