PURPOSE Certain clinicopathologic features correlate with BRAF mutation status in melanoma including younger age and primary subtype. This study sought to determine the BRAF mutation status by age-decade and whether BRAF-mutant genotypes correlated with clinicopathologic features and outcome in patients with metastatic melanoma. METHODS A prospectively assembled cohort of Australian patients ...

The metastasis suppressor, BRMS1, has been demonstrated to cause dramatic regression of metastatic lesions without blocking orthotopic tumor growth. The role of BRMS1 is well-documented for several non-melanoma malignancies, such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer. However, its role in melanoma is just beginning to be understood, with a recent article by Slipicevic ...

Melanomas of the respiratory tract are usually metastatic in origin, and finding a primary melanoma is very rare. We report the case of a 60-year-old man who presented with a 2-month history of cough with associated weight loss. The histopathologic findings were consistent with those of a melanoma. Before considering the diagnosis of primary melanoma of the lung, an extensive diagnostic workup ...

PURPOSE The RAS association domain family 1 (RASSF1) gene is a tumor-suppressor gene located on chromosome 3p21.3. The alternative transcript (RASSF1a) has been shown to be inactivated by hypermethylation in several human malignancies, including breast, prostate, and lung cancer, and in cutaneous melanoma. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the methylation status of RASSF1a in human uvea...

We have previously shown that the mRNA binding protein CRD-BP is overexpressed in human melanomas, where it promotes cell survival and resistance to chemotherapy. The present study investigates the role of hypoxia, a common characteristic of the tumor microenvironment, in the regulation of CRD-BP expression and melanoma cell responses. We found that hypoxia increases CRD-BP levels in metastatic...

melanoma of the oral cavity is a rare malignant disease. on account of the presence at relatively obscure areas in the oral cavity, most of oral malignant melanomas are diagnosed at a late stage. early diagnosis is essential for successful treatment and perhaps is the key factor in improving the prognosis of oral malignant melanoma. however, no large clinical series exist, and in fact, clinical...

BACKGROUND/AIM There has been no consistent pattern reported on how mortality for uveal melanoma varies with age. This information can be useful to model the complexity of the disease. The authors have examined ocular cancer trends, as an indirect measure for uveal melanoma mortality, to see how rates vary with age and to compare the results with their other studies on predicting metastatic dis...

BACKGROUND S-phase kinase protein 2 (Skp2), an F-box protein, targets cell cycle regulators via ubiquitin-mediated degradation. Skp2 is frequently overexpressed in a variety of cancers and associated with patient survival. In melanoma, however, the prognostic significance of subcellular Skp2 expression remains controversial. METHODS To investigate the role of Skp2 in melanoma development, we ...

All-trans retinoic acid (atRA) has been suggested to exert its cytotoxicity via apoptosis but the mechanisms behind the damage effects have not been fully understood. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic effects of atRA in eleven primary and matched metastatic cutaneous melanoma cell lines. All the primary and metastatic melanoma cell lines examined expressed the retinoic acid receptors...

We report a syngeneic model of spontaneous metastatic B16-F10 mouse melanoma in C57/BL6 mice with a very high metastatic frequency that mimics clinical metastatic melanoma. The B16 melanoma cells were injected between the skin and cartilage on the dorsal side of the ear. The model generated lymphatic and visceral metastases in all of the tested animals. In mice with large primary tumors, tumor ...