INTRODUCTION
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States. Approximately 200,000 people are diagnosed with in situ and invasive melanoma, the most aggressive sub-set, each year accounting for approximately 7,000 deaths. Distinguishing early-stage melanoma from atypical nevi remains a challenge for many dermatologists; however, technological advances have increased the probability of successful diagnosis and opportunity for early intervention.1 The Pigmented Lesion Assay (PLA) is a non-invasive genomic test for the earliest melanoma detection that uses adhesive patches to collect skin samples from lesions clinically suspicious for melanoma. Post sample collection, demarcated adhesive patches are macro-dissected robotically utilizing a CO2 laser to separate portions of the patches that sampled lesional tissue from non-lesional tissue with an approximate 1mm margin (Figure 1). Total RNA is isolated from the lesional tissue and
