Yun SJ, et al. - Due to the frequent occurrence of non-tumor infiltrating inflammatory cells in the stroma of melanoma, researchers examined the role of these stromal inflammatory cells (SIC) in cancer. Among 299 patients with vertical growth phase primary melanomas with a minimum of 10 years of clinical follow-up, the prognostic ability of SIC was assessed. They observed that SIC patients had worse clinical results. In cases with SIC vs those without SIC, percentages of vertical growth phase tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and radial growth phase regression were significantly higher; lymphatic invasion was more frequent in cases with SIC as well. Compared to other areas of the melanomas, lymphatic density in SIC areas was higher. Findings revealed that, in melanoma, SIC was linked to worse prognosis and the prognostic impact was partially mediated via induction of lymphangiogenesis with increased lymphatic invasion.