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Satori Iwamoto, MD, PhD; Robert C. Burrows, PhD; Robert E. Kalina, MD; David George, MD; Michael Boehm, MD; Mark A. Bothwell, PhD; Rodney Schmidt, MD, PhD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2002;120:466-470.

Objective  To determine the immunophenotypic differences between uveal and cutaneous melanomas, employing standard melanoma markers as well as p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) and microphthalmia transcription factor (MITF).

Design  Fifteen uveal melanomas (5 spindle, 5 epithelioid, and 5 mixed uveal subtypes) were immunolabeled with a panel of antibodies that included S100, tyrosinase, melan-A, HMB-45 and HMB-50 combination, MITF, and p75NTR. The results were tabulated on the basis of intensity and pervasiveness of the labeling and compared with a prior study on cutaneous spindle and epithelioid melanomas.

Results  In contrast to its strong labeling of cutaneous melanomas, S100 immunolabeling of uveal melanomas was weak and variable. p75NTR, known to differentiate spindle from epithelioid melanomas of the skin, did not immunolabel uveal melanomas. HMB-45, HMB-50, tyrosinase, melan-A, and MITF immunolabeled all uveal melanomas strongly, irrespective of the histologic subtype, but not cutaneous melanomas. Microphthalmia transcription factor was especially clear in its labeling of uveal melanomas.

Conclusions  Although cutaneous and uveal melanomas share many molecular markers in common, there are differences between the 2 types of melanoma. First, the level of expression of S100 differs between cutaneous and uveal melanomas. Second, while cutaneous melanomas can be further subdivided into spindle and epithelioid types based on their immunophenotype, the uveal melanomas cannot.

From the Departments of Medicine (Dr Iwamoto), Physiology and Biophysics (Drs Iwamoto and Bothwell), Radiology/Imaging Research Laboratory (Dr Burrows), Ophthalmology (Drs Kalina, George, and Boehm), and Pathology/Immunocytochemistry (Dr Schmidt), University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, Wash.

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