Clinical characteristics of patients with cutaneous melanoma according to variants in the melanocortin 1 receptor gene.
BACKGROUND
Patients with cutaneous melanoma who are carriers of polymorphisms in the melanocortin 1 receptor gene (MC1R) have distinctive clinical characteristics. The objective of this study was to determine the clinical characteristics associated with differing degrees of functional impairment of the melanocortin 1 receptor, as determined by the number and type (R and r) of MC1R polymorphisms.


METHODS
In total, 1044 consecutive patients with melanoma diagnosed in our hospital after January 2000 were selected from the melanoma database. These patients were divided into 3 groups according to a score based on nonsynonymous MC1R polymorphisms. The frequencies of epidemiologic, phenotypic, and histologic variables and personal and family history of cancer were compared.


RESULTS
Patients with a score of 3 or more were more likely to develop melanoma before the age of 50 years (odds ratio [OR]=1.47), have a tumor on the head or neck (OR=3.04), have a history of basal cell carcinoma or cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (OR=1.70), have atypical nevi (OR=1.74), and have nevi associated with the melanoma (OR=1.87).


CONCLUSIONS
The use of a scoring system for MC1R polymorphisms allowed us to identify associations between the degree of functional impairment of the melanogenesis pathway and the clinical characteristics of the patients and melanoma presentation.
Servicio de Dermatología, Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, España.
M M
MM
Peña-Vilabelda
Unidad de Biología Molecular; Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, España.
Z
Z
García-Casado
Servicio de Dermatología, Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, España.
C
C
Requena
Servicio de Anatomía Patológica, Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, España.
V
V
Traves
Unidad de Biología Molecular; Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, España.
J A
JA
López-Guerrero
Servicio de Dermatología, Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, España.
C
C
Guillén
Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Alemania.
R
R
Kumar
Servicio de Dermatología, Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, España; Universidad Católica de Valencia, Valencia, España. Electronic address: eduardo_nagore@ono.com.
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E
Nagore
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D044102:Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics*
D044102:Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 1
Epidemiology; Epidemiología; Genetic predisposition; MC1R; Melanoma; Predisposición genética