title: Prognostic significance of tyrosinase mRNA detected by nested RT-PCR in patients with malignant melanoma.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of tyrosinase mRNA appearance in blood of malignant melanoma (MM) patients, especially with advanced stages, for predicting the disease progression, and consequently the survival. The tyrosinase mRNA was measured by nested RT-PCR in peripheral venous blood samples obtained from 86 patients (53 male and 33 female) with mainly stage III and IV MM. The data were analyzed using standard methods for survival analysis and logistic regression. Tyrosinase was negative in the MM patients with the disease stage I or II, positive tyrosinase was in 11/50 patients with stage III and in 5/22 patients with stage IV. Systemic metastases developed in 14/16 patients with positive tyrosinase and in 41/70 with negative tyrosinase. The 3-year survival was 8% and 28% among the patients with positive and the patients with negative tyrosinase, respectively. The log rank test showed statistically significant better survival of tyrosinase negative patients when compared to tyrosinase positive patients (p=0.039). Multivariate analysis using logistic regression indicated tyrosinase to be a statistically significant prognostic factor for the survival of MM patients after controlling for Breslow and ulceration values (p=0.006). Positive tyrosinase in peripheral venous blood is statistically significant, and more importantly independent negative predictor of survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Tumor Biology, Institute of Oncology, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Glumac
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Snoj
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hocevar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Novakovic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase / Q000097:blood*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000097:blood*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase