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Big Fish or Red Herring?

Anthony B. Daniels, MD, MSc; David H. Abramson, MD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2009;127(5):695-697.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular cancer in adults.^1-2 Unlike cutaneous melanoma, which metastasizes to local lymph nodes, UM spreads hematogenously, with the most common site of initial metastasis being the liver.¹ Forty percent of patients develop metastases within 10 years of diagnosis,³ and mean survival ranges from 2 to 12.5 months after metastasis.^4-5 The best current treatment, with either chemotherapy or immunotherapy, only extends survival for metastatic disease by a couple of months.¹ Overall, the prognosis is grim, with few good treatment options available.

Not only does the route of spread differentiate UM from cutaneous melanoma, but those 2 diseases also appear to differ molecularly. Many cutaneous melanomas harbor mutations in the B-RAF or N-RAS oncogenes,⁶ and recent studies⁷ have shown that c-KIT oncogene expression is downregulated as cutaneous melanomas progress. In contrast, studies^8-9 have found c-KIT . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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