Because of the failure so far to find effective treatment for patients with advanced stages of melanoma, increasing efforts have been made to find prognostic factors identifying patients in the risk zone for development of metastasis.This thesis investigates the prognostic powers of a few selected serological and immunohistochemical biomarkers.
Malignant melanoma arises from the pigment producing melanocytes in epidermis and is the most aggressive type of skin cancer. The incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing faster than any other type of cancer in white population worldwide, with a doubling rate every
Growth factors and their receptors are frequently activated by mutations in human cancer. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-B and its tyrosine kinase receptor, the PDGF β-receptor, have been implicated in autocrine transformation as well as paracrine stimulation of tumor growth. The availability of
In this thesis, methods to study gene and protein expression in cells and tissues were developed and utilized in combination with protein-specific antibodies, with the overall objective to attain greater understanding of protein function.To analyze protein expression in in vitro cultured cell
Malignant melanoma is one of the most rapidly increasing cancers and accounts for about three-quarter of all skin cancer deaths worldwide. Despite compelling evidence that ultraviolet (UV) irradiation causes melanoma the knowledge how various wavelength spectra affect the balance between proliferation and