can result in gene silencing. This silencing of genes can be dangerous to cells, especially when the genes silenced are active in maintaining the cell cycle. The table below shows some of the important genes targeted by promoter hypermethylation in melanoma. TABLE 1. Various genes targeted by promoter hypermethylation in malignant melanoma Some of the genes affected by cytosine methylation in melanoma formation INK4A INK4A, also known as p16, is a tumor suppressor gene and is found to have hypermethylated promoter regions in 10- 20% of melanoma cells and is involved in 40- 87% of gene alterations in melanoma cases (Gonzalgo et al., 1997). This means that 10- 20% of the time there is an epigenetic change in the INK4A gene, and 40- 87% of the time there is a nucleotide mutation in the gene. INK4A is one of the genes that is both epigenetically and genomically altered. As a regularly functioning gene, INK4A is a tumor suppressor that functions to repress the formation of tumors. The hypermethylation of this gene can cause it to become inactivated (Straume et al., 2002). When INK4 is inactivated through hypermethylation, it causes an interruption of the CDK4 and CDK6 genes, which normally stop cell growth in the G1 phase of cell division. When this happens, there is no regulation in the cell and it grows quickly and becomes cancerous. SYK SYK is another gene that is affected by cytosine methylation during cancer progression. It is a gene that, when hypermethylated, loses function (Muthusamy et al., 2006). This gene is found in 30- 89% of melanoma cases (Dahl et al., 2007), and causes cells to grow quickly. This fast growth is important in the quick metastasis of melanoma cells, and when hypermethylated, the growth and spread of cells slow considerably (Hoeller et al., 2005). This is a controversial finding with inconclusive results, though. Some findings show that normally functioning SYK genes aids in tumor suppression, while other studies find that it is a transforming factor that facilitates cancer formation. Normally functioning, the SYK gene produces a non- receptor protein kinase enzyme that aids in differentiation, proliferation, and phagocytosis among many other important processes. SYK is found expressed in a variety of cells including fibroblasts, epithelial cells (where it controls cell division and acts as a tumor suppressor), hepatocytes, and neuronal cells (TORCIS Bioscience, 2014). Although SYK does not have any reported DNA modifications, the