PURPOSE RUNX3 is a known tumor suppressor gene in several carcinomas. Aberration in RUNX3 expression has not been described for cutaneous melanoma. Therefore, we assessed the expression of RUNX3 in cutaneous melanoma and its regulatory mechanisms relative to tumor progression. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The expression of RUNX3 mRNA and miR-532-5p (microRNA) was assessed in melanoma lines and in prim...

The new melanoma staging system from The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) is described. This major revision includes new criteria for staging the primary tumor (T), metastatic nodes (N) and distant metastases (M) as well as stage groupings. These criteria more accurately reflect those prognostic features of the primary and metastatic melanoma that correlate with survival outcome. Physi...

BACKGROUND Subtypes of melanoma, such as mucosal, uveal, and acral, are believed to result in worse prognoses than nonacral cutaneous melanoma. After a diagnosis of distant metastatic disease, however, the overall survival of patients with mucosal, uveal, acral, nonacral cutaneous, and unknown primary melanoma has not been directly compared. MATERIALS AND METHODS We conducted a single-center,...

BACKGROUND The stomach is regarded as a rare site for metastasis. When a gastric mass is observed macroscopically, the presumed diagnosis is usually a primary gastric carcinoma. However, the stomach may be involved in metastatic malignant melanoma. Besides a possible macroscopical misdiagnosis, metastatic gastric melanoma may also be misdiagnosed microscopically as adenocarcinoma due to its pro...

The authors analyzed butyrylcholinesterase status in melanocytic pathology and possible association of enzyme activity with melanoma diagnose and progression. Butyrylcholinesterase activity showed no changes between melanoma and dysplastic nevi, between melanoma and control, between nevi and control, but it had a statistically significant variation between primary and metastatic melanoma. Butyr...

BACKGROUND Primary melanoma of the small bowel is extremely rare. Only a limited number of cases have been described in the literature. Mostly, the small intestine is affected by metastatic tumors of other primary lesions, especially cutaneous. CASE PRESENTATION We report the case of a 75-year-old North African woman with a small bowel melanoma. The diagnosis was made by histological examinat...

In this study, we investigated differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) and their functions in metastatic melanoma using next-generation sequencing technology. The GSE36236 data set was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and 4 primary cutaneous melanoma samples (used as controls) and 3 metastatic melanoma samples were selected from 31 samples for further analy...

Metastatic choroid melanoma is a highly malignant disease with a limited life expectancy. The liver is the most common site for metastasis of uveal melanoma followed by lung, bone, skin, and subcutaneous tissue. Metastasis from choroidal melanoma usually occurs within the first five years of treatment for primary tumours. Metastatic choroid melanoma to the spine/vertebrae is extremely rare. We ...

Human melanoma contains multipotent stem cells that express the neural crest stem cell marker CD271. CD271-expressing melanoma cells in murine xenografts give rise to metastatic tumor. However, a comprehensive clinical investigation of its role in different stages of melanomagenesis has not been well studied. We studied CD271 expression with immunohistochemistry in 11 cases of banal melanocytic...

Melanoma is heterogeneous for its biological properties and melanoma-associated antigens (MAAs). This diversity is partially observed in the expression of the MAAs involved with the melanin synthesis pathway. We therefore developed a sensitive multimarker reverse transcription-PCR plus Southern blot assay using five MAAs as molecular markers to detect primary and metastatic melanoma cells. Mela...