Prickett et al. (2009) reported that somatic mutations of ERBB4 in malignant melanoma are widespread and proved that ERBB4 mutations are new drug targets for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. However, Zhou et al. (2013) and others reported that ERBB4 hotspot mutations were not detected in melanoma patients in southern China, suggesting that in Chinese melanoma patients, ERBB4 mutations can only play a limited role. These conclusions prove that there may be geographical differences in mutations of susceptibility genes in melanoma (Casula et al., 2009). Here, ERBB4 is linked to metastatic melanoma.