Gene expression-based analysis of extra-cerebral metastases of patients with cerebrotropism (defined here as development of brain metastasis within < 6 months of stage IV disease), compared to patients who did not develop brain metastases for >18 months

To test the association between gene expression and cerebrotropism the Wilcoxon rank-sum test was utilized and revealed over 400 genes differentially expressed between thw two patient groups Please note that cerebrotropism is defined here as development of brain metastasis within < 6 months of stage IV disease In this study we utilized a well-annotated cohort of metastatic melanoma cases to acquire expression profiles of a total of 9,829 unique genes Cerebrotropism Status (provided in each sample characteristics field): 1 represents early cerebrotropic patients (patients who developed CNS metastases within 6 months of diagnosis of metastatic disease ) 0 represents non-cerebrotropic patients (patients who did not develop brain metastases for over 18 months.