Peripheral Blood and/or Bone Marrow, Including Detection of Occult Metastases, in Patients With Melanoma

Study of Peripheral Blood and/or Bone Marrow, Including Detection of Occult Metastases, in Patients With Melanoma

The purpose of this study is to determine if tumor cells can be detected in the peripheral blood and/or bone marrow of patients with melanoma.

Patients with melanoma can succumb to subclinical metastatic disease, not detectable at presentation by conventional physical examination, hematologic and biochemical screening, or radiologic evaluation. More intensive radiologic evaluation with CT or radioisotope scanning has not proven to be useful. What may be useful is a more sensitive method of staging melanoma patients at presentation, specifically evaluating them for subclinical systemic disease.

Inclusion Criteria:

MSK Patients with histologically confirmed melanoma of any site and at least one of the following:

• Primary tumor > 4.0 mm thick (AJCC Stage IIB)
• Clinically or histologically positive regional nodes (AJCC Stage III)
• Any in transit disease (AJCC Stage III)
• Any systemic metastases (AJCC Stage IV)