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We understand that achieving these goals will require input from a broad group of investigators, and that is why all of you are here, with diverse areas of expertise and interest, including medical oncologists, surgeons, basic scientists, pathologists, for this meeting dermatologists, epidemiologists. There are people here from industry, as well as the melanoma advocacy group.

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There have been approximately 12 State of the Science meetings, virtually all of them thus far in the pilot diseases that were part of the pilot projects.

Melanoma is now the second disease outside of the pilot projects for which we are hosting a State of the Science meeting, the first being a fall meeting last year in soft tissue sarcoma.

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One of the critical features of this meeting is that the proceeds will be made available on a website, so that other investigators from all over the world can view the proceedings, the presentations and particularly the summary recommendations that you will make in the breakout sessions that Frank is going to talk about here very shortly.
We feel that this is a critical feature of this meeting and some of what make this meeting unique. So, that is what some of the AV things around are that you are seeing.

We hope that you have had an opportunity to visit the website and see some of the previous meetings, so that you can see how valuable this is.
I will say just quickly for the speakers, there was raised a concern with one or two of the speakers about presenting data that will also be presented at the ASCO meeting in a couple of weeks and the embargo rules and those sorts of things. So, we won't be putting this on line until after the ASCO meeting, for that reason.

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Why did we choose to do melanoma, why did I choose to do melanoma, for this meeting?
These figures are familiar to all of you, I know, but someone needs to say them once. So, I will do so this morning.

Melanoma is a very serious disease. The American Cancer Society estimates that in the year 2003, over 54,000 cases will be diagnosed, and 7,600 people will die from the disease.

Everyone in this room, I know, is aware that the melanoma incidence rate has more than doubled, and the mortality rate for melanoma has increased by 44 percent in the last two to three decades.

Melanoma disproportionately affects a younger population of people, with a higher rate of years of life lost than most adult malignancies.

I think a major reason to bring you all together and to have this meeting is that progress, as you know, in melanoma therapy has been difficult and slow over the last decade.

Sharing information and ideas is critically important to keep the ball rolling and to sort of kick start some activities, particularly some translational and clinical activities in melanoma.

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This is the format for the meeting. Frank is going to go over this in a little bit more detail here in just a second, but just to briefly summarize, today is a series of plenary session of speakers, who are going to summarize recent progress in melanoma, sort of, where are we now.

They will provide insights and opinions as to the important ideas that will allow the field of melanoma to move forward.

Tomorrow morning, there will be program sessions that provide an opportunity for cross education between people in different disciplines, as well as clarification of ideas and large group discussion, as to how one area of research may inform another.

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The meat of the meeting are the breakout sessions, tomorrow morning and afternoon. We will put you in a room, four different breakout sessions, close the doors, and have you then emerge several hours later with recommendations and ideas as to what the most important issues are in melanoma, what the most important scientific ideas are that need to be studied, and how best to study them.

So, the scientific directions that you feel hold the most promise, the important questions that need to be addressed, and how best to facilitate the movement of these promising ideas into clinical trials, and Frank is going to talk a little bit more about that in just a moment.

Then, the final session on Wednesday will be a summary of the major themes and recommendations from each of the breakout groups, with opportunity for discussion and input from the entire group.

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So, the charge to you as participants from the leaders and the NCI is to participate openly in this dialogue that is intended to identify and discuss promising opportunities for research in melanoma, to develop recommendations regarding the most important problems or questions that need to be addressed, and the translational and clinical studies that should be developed and conducted to address them.

Hopefully, in the process, you will get to know some colleagues, exchange some ideas and have some fun. We all have a similar interest in this room, in trying to make things better for patients with melanoma.

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I would like to take a quick opportunity -- and I will do so again on Wednesday -- to thank the meeting chairs, Frank Haluska and Vern Sondak, who have been instrumental in putting this together.

They put a great deal of hours and time and thought into this. It has been a very productive collaboration.

I am very grateful to them for all of their assistance. They received many emergent e-mails that they have been very gracious to be patient with, and I am very appreciative of that.

We had a planning committee who helped put the meeting together as well. This consisted of Linda Chin, Allan Halpern, Ulrich Keilholz and Walt Urba. They also have been instrumental in the development of the agenda and getting people together with the goals of the meeting.

Then, the speakers, the program session leaders tomorrow morning, and the breakout session chairs.

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So, I am going to turn the meeting over now to Vern and Frank. Forgive the war analogy here, but I think it is important, as we go into the next couple of days, there have been a lot of clinical set backs, a lot of clinical things that haven't quite worked out over the past several years, and that was a large reason to put this meeting together.

I would like to think of this as not retreating, but an opportunity to think about which other direction we should be advancing.

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