We could previously show that human tumor cells from various entities differ remarkably in their carbohydrate ligands for E-selectin, which determines distinct endothelial adhesion patterns 8: tumor cell lines of non-epithelial origin (melanoma, osteosarcoma, small cell lung cancer) commonly lack expression of the canonical E-selectin ligands sLeA/X; nevertheless, they adhere to endothelium in an E-selectin-dependent manner, although with low E-selectin binding affinity. This evidence concerns the gene SELE and melanoma.