Oral malignant melanoma (OMM) is the most common canine melanocytic neoplasm.,Overlap between the somatic mutation profiles of canine OMM and human mucosal melanomas suggest a shared UV-independent molecular aetiology.,In common with human mucosal melanomas, most canine OMM metastasise.,There is no reliable means of predicting canine OMM metastasis, and systemic therapies for metastatic disease are largely palliative.,Herein, we employed exon microarrays for comparative expression profiling of FFPE biopsies of 18 primary canine OMM that metastasised and 10 primary OMM that did not metastasise.,Genes displaying metastasis-associated expression may be targets for anti-metastasis treatments, and biomarkers of OMM metastasis.,Reduced expression of CXCL12 in the metastasising OMMs implies that the CXCR4/CXCL12 axis may be involved in OMM metastasis.,Increased expression of APOBEC3A in the metastasising OMMs may indicate APOBEC3A-induced double-strand DNA breaks and pro-metastatic hypermutation.,DNA double strand breakage triggers the DNA damage response network and two Fanconi anaemia DNA repair pathway members showed elevated expression in the metastasising OMMs.,Cross-validation was employed to test a Linear Discriminant Analysis classifier based upon the RT-qPCR-measured expression levels of CXCL12, APOBEC3A and RPL29.,Classification accuracies of 94% (metastasising OMMs) and 86% (non-metastasising OMMs) were estimated.
Cancer immunotherapy has been firmly established as a standard of care for patients with advanced and metastatic melanoma.,Therapeutic outcomes in clinical trials have resulted in the approval of 11 new drugs and/or combination regimens for patients with melanoma.,However, prospective data to support evidence-based clinical decisions with respect to the optimal schedule and sequencing of immunotherapy and targeted agents, how best to manage emerging toxicities and when to stop treatment are not yet available.,To address this knowledge gap, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Melanoma Task Force developed a process for consensus recommendations for physicians treating patients with melanoma integrating evidence-based data, where available, with best expert consensus opinion.,The initial consensus statement was published in 2013, and version 2.0 of this report is an update based on a recent meeting of the Task Force and extensive subsequent discussions on new agents, contemporary peer-reviewed literature and emerging clinical data.,The Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) clinical practice guidelines were used as a basis for consensus development with an updated literature search for important studies published between 1992 and 2017 and supplemented, as appropriate, by recommendations from Task Force participants.,The Task Force considered patients with stage II-IV melanoma and here provide consensus recommendations for how they would incorporate the many immunotherapy options into clinical pathways for patients with cutaneous melanoma.,These clinical guidleines provide physicians and healthcare providers with consensus recommendations for managing melanoma patients electing treatment with tumor immunotherapy.,The online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-018-0362-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.