title: MCW melanoma cocktail for the evaluation of micrometastases in sentinel lymph nodes of cutaneous melanoma.
abstract: Prevailing reports support the status of sentinel lymph node biopsy as the standard of care in the management of cutaneous melanoma. However, the evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes for melanoma metastases with traditionally used immunomarkers such as S100 protein and HMB45 has proved challenging. The MCW melanoma cocktail (a mixture of MART-1 [1:500], Melan-A [1:100] and tyrosinase [1:50] monoclonal antibodies) has demonstrated a highly discriminatory immunostaining pattern. Contrary to conventionally used immunomarkers such as S100 protein, the MCW melanoma cocktail facilitates detection of even singly scattered melanoma cells in sentinel lymph nodes, not only in permanent sections but also in imprint smears.
authors.affiliation: Medical College of Wisconsin, Department of Pathology, Milwaukee, WI 53226 USA. vshidham@mcw.edu
authors.forename: Vinod B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Shidham
authors.forename: Chung-Che
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Komorowski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology*; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor