Uveal vs. cutaneous melanoma. Origins and causes of the differences

Melanoma is a malignant tumour derived from melanocytes (dendritic cells originated from the neural crest and capable to produce melanin synthesis) that could be established on the skin or less frequently on the uvea. The cellular origin from both kind of melanoma seems to be the same but the melanocytes migrates to the epithelia for cutaneous melanoma, while for uveal melanoma, they migrate to mesodermic tissues. Despite the common origin, both melanomas show extreme differences in their metastatic potential, clinical response to treatments, immune response and genetic alterations. We will describe some of those differences in this review.