The discovery of a new marker of melanoma progression

Linked Article:   Perez et al. Br J Dermatol 2021; 185 :294–301. Melanoma is a type of skin cancer, which arises from the pigment cells (melanocytes) in the skin. Melanoma is considered to be the most serious type of skin cancer because it is more likely to spread (metastasize) from the skin to other parts of the body than other types of skin cancer. If melanoma has spread to other parts of the body, those deposits are known as secondary melanoma (secondaries/metastases). Metastatic melanoma has a poor 5‐year survival rate of 22·5% as it can be resistant to treatment and prone to recurrence. Identifying biomarkers (indicators of a biological process) that better predict likely treatment response and disease severity is therefore important. We believe that understanding the cancer glycome (composed of complex carbohydrates termed glycans), can provide new molecular targets for monitoring disease progression and for developing treatments. Novel findings suggest that glycans play a major role in influencing melanoma progression and could be used to help predict metastatic activity and/or as therapeutic targets. In this review, we discuss the role of aberrant glycosylation (i.e. where the process differs from the normal one), particularly the specialized function of GCNT2 (β1,6 N ‐acetylglucosaminyltransferase 2), in melanoma pathogenesis. We summarize mechanisms of GCNT2 regulation to shed light on its potential as a predictive marker and as a target for treatment.