Malignant Melanoma has rapidly increased in incidence over the past thirty years, at a rate of roughly 3% per year. In 2005, approximately 59,000 new cases of melanoma were diagnosed with 8000 deaths. While the majority of early melanomas can be surgically cured, advanced melanoma has an extremely poor prognosis. Current chemotherapy and immunotherapy options for advanced melanoma still offer response rates of only 10-20%. Thus, the elucidation of biomarkers in melanoma, both diagnostic and prognostic, is an important area for investigation.

CXCL1 is a chemokine whose expression is upregulated in melanoma. We postulate that CXCL1 plays an important role in the progression of melanoma to invasive disease. Our hypothesis states that serum CXCL1 levels correlate with the presence of melanoma.

Aims:

1. To measure serum levels of CXCL1 in untreated, metastatic melanoma patients and to compare to serum CXCL1 levels in normal controls.
2. To measure and compare centrally and peripherally collected serum CXCL1 levels in untreated, metastatic melanoma.

Blood will be collected from metastatic melanoma patients on one occasion, both peripherally and centrally. Control will have blood collected peripherally on one occasion. The blood will be processed and then tested in a blinded, batched fashion.