Immunohistochemical study of pepsinogen C expression in cutaneous malignant melanoma: association with clinicopathological parameters.
BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to evaluate the pepsinogen C expression in malignant cutaneous melanomas and analyze its possible relationship to clinical and pathological parameters. Pepsinogen C is an aspartyl proteinase primarily involved in the digestion of proteins in the stomach and represents one of the main androgen-inducible proteins in breast cancer cells.


METHODS
Tumoral pepsinogen C expression was retrospectively analyzed in 35 paraffin-embedded tissues from patients with primary malignant cutaneous melanoma and in 10 samples from 10 benign lesions (4 dermal melanocytic nevi, 4 compound melanocytic nevi and 2 dysplastic melanocytic nevi), using immunohistochemical methods.


RESULTS
The benign lesions were consistently negative for pepsinogen C, whereas 20 of the 35 malignant melanomas (57%) showed positive immunostaining for pepsinogen C. The percentage of pepsinogen C-positive tumors was significantly higher in men than in women (p=0.01) and in epithelioid melanomas than in fusocellular or mixed type melanomas (p=0.003). In addition, the percentage of pepsinogen-C positive tumors was positively and significantly correlated with lesion thickness (p=0.003), Clark's level of invasion (p=0.028) and tumor stage (p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Pepsinogen C could be a new prognosticator of unfavorable outcome in cutaneous malignant melanoma.
Quintela
I
I
Department of General Surgery, Hospital de Jove, Gijón, Asturias.
Vizoso
F
F
Serra
C
C
González
L O
LO
Fernandez
R
R
Merino
A M
AM
Baltasar
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000728:Androgens / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D020115:Pepsinogen C / Q000032:analysis*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology
D000728:Androgens; D020115:Pepsinogen C