Genetics of uveal melanoma

Uveal melanoma is a rare sporadic tumor with high mortality. Despite all advances in the treatment of this malignancy, mortality rate has not improved over the past decades. Tremendous advances in research on the development of uveal melanoma and metastatic disease have changed our understanding of this disease over the past years. New insights into the genetic and molecular fundamentals of uveal melanoma show first impacts in the clinical management of affected patients, and there is reason for hope, that the development of new treatments will improve the still poor prognosis. The objective of this work is to provide an overview on our current understanding of clinical genetics, cyto- and molecular genetics, to explain recent research in this field and to describe how recent findings have already begun to change the treatment of uveal melanoma patients.