Update in genetic susceptibility in melanoma

Melanoma is the most aggressive of the common skin cancers, being responsible for 75% of deaths from skin cancer (1). Melanoma incidence is rapidly increasing especially in Caucasian populations (1,2). Although development of melanoma during childhood is rare, it can appear at any age and is the second most diagnosed cancer among patients under 30 years old (3). For this reason, melanoma is one of the cancers with more years of productive life lost (4). If melanoma is diagnosed in its early stages, it can be cured by surgical removal. However, when the diagnosis is delayed, melanoma is the tumor with the highest metastatic capacity, since it increases by 10% per millimeter of thickness. Despite the improvement in survival of metastatic patients thanks to new targeted therapies, diagnosis and treatment of the initial tumor remains the best strategy for dealing with melanoma (5). Thus, the identification of individuals at high risk of developing melanoma is essential to reduce melanoma mortality, as prevention and early detection programs can be implemented