Introduction Treatment of unresectable liver metastases (LM) from uveal melanoma (UM) remains a major clinical challenge. Systemic chemotherapy and chemoimmunotherapy regimens extrapolated from cutaneous melanoma are considered to be ineffective in therapy of metastases from uveal melanoma. Studies suggest that the progression of hepatic metastases rather than the primary tumor or metastases in...

PURPOSE To assess whether human leukocyte antigen class I and class II alleles confer susceptibility to uveal melanoma or are related to specific clinical or tumor characteristics and survival. METHODS Between 1990 and 2004, 235 consecutive Dutch patients with diagnoses of primary uveal melanoma were typed for HLA class I and II, either by complement-dependent cytotoxicity test or by DNA-base...

Tumors often display unrestricted cell cycling attributable to a dysfunctional G1-S checkpoint. One of the mechanisms leading to such a defect is the inactivation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16. Although inactivation of p16 is observed in a wide range of tumors, including cutaneous melanoma, genetic alteration of p16 is reportedly uncommon in uveal melanoma. Here we show that the ...

PURPOSE Interleukin-2 (IL-2) and IL-15 receptors have been detected on some murine neoplasms. Accordingly, the expression of these receptors on human uveal melanoma cell lines was examined, and the effect of exogenous IL-2 and -15 on melanoma cell proliferation, susceptibility to natural killer (NK) cell-mediated cytolysis, and sensitivity to apoptosis were assessed. METHODS Nine human uveal ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group endogenous small non-coding RNAs that inhibit protein translation through binding to specific target mRNAs. Recent studies have demonstrated that miRNAs are implicated in the development of cancer. However, the role of miR-144 in uveal melanoma metastasis remains largely unknown. MiR-144 was downregulated in both uveal melanoma cells and tissues. Transfection of m...

A woman with bilateral ocular melanocytosis developed a malignant melanoma of the choroid in one eye. The ocular melanotic hyperpigmentation, present since childhood, clinically involved the conjunctiva and episcleral and uveal tract of both eyes. To our knowledge this is only the second reported case of a uveal malignant melanoma in a patient with bilateral ocular melanocytosis. There is evide...

Zeaxanthin at nonlethal dosages (3-10 μM) significantly inhibited the cell migration of cultured uveal melanoma cells (C918 cell line) as determined by wound healing assay and Boyden chamber assay. Matrigel invasion assay showed that cell invasion of uveal melanoma cells could be significantly inhibited by zeaxanthin. Secretion of MMP-2 by melanoma cells was significantly inhibited by zeaxanthi...

Tumors often display unrestricted cell cycling attributable to a dysfunctional G1-S checkpoint. One of the mechanisms leading to such a defect is the inactivation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16. Although inactivation of p16 is observed in a wide range of tumors, including cutaneous melanoma, genetic alteration of p16 is reportedly uncommon in uveal melanoma. Here we show that the ...

PURPOSE To describe a case of uveal melanoma in the peripheral choroid masquerading as chronic uveitis and to raise awareness about malignant masquerade syndromes. CASE REPORT A 36-year-old Chinese woman presented from an outside ophthalmologist with a 6-month history of unilateral chronic uveitis unresponsive to medical therapy in the left eye. She was found to have a uveal melanoma in the r...

PURPOSE Uveal melanomas are notoriously radioresistant and thus necessitate treatment with extremely high radiation doses that often cause ocular complications. The p53 tumor suppressor pathway is a major mediator of the cellular response to radiation-induced DNA damage, suggesting that this pathway may be defective in uveal melanoma. The current study was conducted to analyze the functional in...