Somatic GNAQ mutations at codon 209 have been identified in approximately 50% of uveal melanomas and have been reported to be oncogenic through activating PLCb/PKC/Erk1/2 pathways. We hypothesized that protein kinase C (PKC) may provide new opportunities for therapeutic targeting of uveal melanoma carrying GNAQ mutations. To test this hypothesis, uveal melanoma cells harboring wild-type or muta...

PURPOSE This was a pilot study conducted to examine the expression of osteopontin in uveal melanoma and to determine whether serum osteopontin can be used in detecting metastatic uveal melanoma. METHODS Osteopontin mRNA was measured in three uveal melanoma cell lines of various invasive potential by real-time PCR. Tissue sections of primary and metastatic uveal melanomas were stained for oste...

Somatic GNAQ mutations at codon 209 have been identified in approximately 50% of uveal melanomas and have been reported to be oncogenic through activating PLCβ/PKC/Erk1/2 pathways. We hypothesized that protein kinase C (PKC) may provide new opportunities for therapeutic targeting of uveal melanoma carrying GNAQ mutations. To test this hypothesis, uveal melanoma cells harboring wild-type or muta...

PURPOSE To investigate the occurrence of other primary malignancies before and after diagnosis of uveal melanoma in a Swedish population. METHODS In the Swedish Cancer Registry 2995 patients with uveal melanoma were notified during the period 1960 to 1998. In the same registry, a search for additional malignancies among these patients was performed. A matched case-control study with 2,916 pat...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the survival rate of patients with uveal melanoma and sex disparity in this rate in South Korea. Methods We extracted incident uveal melanoma patients using the Korea Central Cancer Registry (KCCR) database, which covered the entire population from 1999 to 2012 in South Korea. We estimated all-cause survival probabilities and cancer-specific ...

Although rare, uveal melanoma is the most common primary intraocular malignant tumor in adults. Over the past 50 years, the incidence in North America has been stable, with 4.3 per million (or about 1,500 cases per year) being newly diagnosed (Sato, Han, & Yamamoto, 2008). Uveal melanoma differs from cutaneous melanoma in a variety of ways, such as primary treatment, metastatic pattern, and ove...

PURPOSE This study was conducted to investigate the expression and functional impact of the proto-oncogene c-kit in uveal melanoma. METHODS Based on immunohistochemical (IHC) study of paraffin-embedded specimens from 134 uveal melanomas and Western blot analysis on eight fresh-frozen samples the expression of c-kit in uveal melanoma was studied. Furthermore, the phosphorylation of c-kit and t...

PURPOSE To assess the expression of PD-L1 on human uveal melanomas and its potential to suppress T-cell function. METHODS A panel of primary and metastatic uveal melanoma cell lines was evaluated for PD-L1 expression by RT-PCR and flow cytometric analysis. Uveal melanoma-containing eyes were examined for PD-L1 expression by immunohistochemistry. PD-L1 function was tested by coculturing IFN-ga...

Uveal melanoma arises in the eye, and it spreads to distant organs in almost half of patients, leading to a fatal outcome. To metastasize, uveal melanoma cells must transmigrate into and out of the microvasculature, crossing the monolayer of endothelial cells that separates the vessel lumen from surrounding tissues. We investigated how human uveal melanoma cells cross the endothelial cell monol...

PURPOSE To examine the immunohistochemical profile of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) in uveal melanoma and the cytotoxicity of an Hsp90 inhibitor, 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG), in uveal melanoma cell lines. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Hsp90 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry in 44 paraffin-embedded sections of primary human uveal melanoma and in five uveal melanoma ce...