Left-sided excess in the laterality of cutaneous melanoma.

Methods. To further evaluate the relationship between ROG and melanoma proliferation, we assessed the correlation of ROG with Ki67, a commonly used marker of cell cycle progression, and phosphorylated-histone-H3 (PH3), a sensitive marker of mitosis. The methods of assessing Ki67 and PH3 have been described elsewhere. In brief, recuts of a representative section within the primary melanoma were used for immunohistochemical staining with both markers, and staining was scored by 2 independent assessors without knowledge of ROG. The Ki67 staining (percentage of staining melanoma cells in the dermis) and the PH3 staining (numbers of staining melanoma cells per millimeters squared in the dermis) were assessed, beginning in the most immunoreactive area. The final score of Ki67 and the final score of PH3 were defined as the mean of scores from the 2 assessors. Results. The intraclass correlation coefficients for interassessor agreement were 0.91 for PH3 and 0.89 for Ki67, indicating an excellent level of agreement. We found that similar to the correlation with mitotic rate, ROG was significantly associated with the Ki67 score (Spearman rank correlation coefficient, 0.44; P .001) (Figure 1) and with the PH3 score (Spearman rank correlation coefficient, 0.46; P .001) (Figure 2).