Stephy Publishers

  Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Therapeutics | Stephy publishers Abstract Although melanoma accounts for less than a tenth of all skin cancers, it is responsible for three quarters of skin cancer deaths. It has a more aggressive nature, tendency to metastasise and is more resistant to anti-cancer therapies than non-melanoma skin cancer. The more common skin malignancies arise from the epidermal keratinocytes but the melanoma arises from the melanocyte, sitting on the dermo-epidermal junction. The difference is the neural crest origin of the melanocyte. Cells of neural crest origin are characterised by being heterogeneous, multipotent, mobile, having a high degree of plasticity and, in development and disease able to demonstrate epidermal to mesenchymal transition. The evolutionary deployment of the neural crest cells allowed early chordate species to transform from thin sessile filter feeders into the more mobile, active, and predatory vertebrates, demonstrating adaptatio...