Genome-Wide Analysis of Somatic Copy Number Alterations (CGH, SNP) and Gene Expression (RNA-seq) in Metastatic Melanoma

All cancers are diseases of the genome. A combination of somatic point mutations, focal amplifications and deletions, and chromosome level aberrations conspire to disrupt gene expression and the interplay between signaling pathways that control normal growth and tissue homeostasis. Here we investigate somatic copy number abberations in metastatic melanomas. A metastatic melanoma was assayed on Affymetrix SNP arrays to detect copy number abberations. 7 cutaneous melanomas as well as their matched control ( peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) or Epstein-Barr virus transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines ) and 2 control melanocytes were assayed on Illumina SNP arrays. 7 metastatic melanomas were hybridized on Agilent CGH arrays using donor matched control as reference.