The purpose of this study is to determine if circulating tumor cells (CTC) can be accurately detected and isolated from the blood of participants with melanoma using novel laboratory techniques. Blood samples will be collected from participants with melanoma, and also from participants with other solid tumor cancers and healthy volunteers for purposes of comparison. Relevant information will be collected from participant's medical record and stored in a coded manner in a password-protected format. This information will be used to look for correlations of research results on blood samples to participant's medical condition. Test results will not be given to participants or their physicians. In some cases, CTC may be grown for long-term cell lines for further research.
Name: Blood Draw
Case-Control
There is one SNP
- Isolate plasma RNA and DNA to assess expression tumor-specific markers (e.g., tyrosinase, B-FRAF, V600E, etc.) and metastasis-associated genes (e.g., MSH-1, thymidylate synthase, etc.). --- V600E ---
B-RAF V600E in melanoma patients) mitotic rate of tumor, date of tumor diagnosis, treatment history, date of regional and metastatic progression and date of death (if applicable). --- V600E ---