Background - The Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research constitute the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe. In addition to an in-house drug development program, phase I - phase III clinical trials of novel anti-cancer agents are hosted. In order to investigate the optimal use of novel molecularly targeted agents, access to clinical tumour samples is needed in order to determine which particular cancer type expresses a molecular "signature" that may indicate potential therapeutic utility. Understanding such signatures should accelerate the registration of new drugs for routine cancer therapy; offering the potential of selecting those patients with tumour types most likely to benefit from therapy. Furthermore, new insights into disease biology may be gained.
Main research question/ objective - Are there features of primary melanoma or lymph node metastases that predict subsequent clinical outcome better than existing markers?
