Melanoma has shown a rapid increase in its incidence rate over the past two decades, especially in early-stage disease. Characterization of the molecular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of melanoma could be helpful to identify the molecular profiles underlying aggressiveness, clinical behavior, and response to therapy as well as to better classify the subsets of melanoma patients with different prognosis and/or clinical outcomes. Treatment for both early and advanced melanomas has been changed a little since the introduction of interferon and IL-2 in the early 1990s. Anyway, recent data from trials testing targeted agents or immune modulators suggest the promise of new strategies to treat patients with advanced melanoma.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts to understand the molecular basis of melanoma progression and to improve prevention, diagnosis, surgical treatment, immunotherapy, and new possible strategies.

We are particularly interested in articles describing the new pathway involved in melanoma genesis, new diagnostic tools, improvements in surgical treatment, biomarkers, new molecular immunotherapeutic approaches, and new potential targets agents for antitumor and immunomodulatory therapy. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Recent developments in molecular mechanism of melanoma genesis
• Advances in genetics of melanoma
• New prevention strategies and new approaches for early diagnosis
• Advances in surgical procedures for melanoma treatment
• Advances in biomarkers for the prognosis and predictive for the response to treatment
• Targeted therapies
• New strategies for the treatment of advanced diseases
• Novel physiopathological models to evaluate melanoma treatment
• Synergy and addition of the various signaling pathways

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jsc/guidelines.html. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: