title: Intratumoral multinucleated giant cells are not a prognostic pathologic feature in cutaneous melanoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Histopathologic diagnostic features such as tumor thickness, ulceration, mitoses, microsatellitosis and nodal metastases are principal pathologic staging components of cutaneous melanomas. We chose to focus on evaluating the presence of multinucleated giant cells in microscopic sections as a putative novel prognosticating diagnostic feature of melanoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assembled a retrospective cohort comprised of 562 cases of melanoma. We annotated each case for a multitude of known clinicopathologic variables to allow robust statistical evaluation of our cohort.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 37 cases (6.6%) exhibited the multinucleated giant cells phenotype. Virtually all multinucleated giant cells were localized in the reticular dermis. Of interest, melanomas with multinucleated giant cells were roughly twice more likely to occur on head and neck sites (p = 0.04). Melanomas with multinucleated giant cells phenotype had both comparable melanoma recurrence (p = 0.12) and similar melanoma-specific mortality when compared with melanomas without multinucleated giant cells phenotype (p = 0.26).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite prior anecdotal reports possibly linking multinucleated giant cells phenotype to more aggressive clinical course, we find that melanomas with multinucleated giant cells phenotype is not associated with shorter survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology, Phramongkutklao Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.|Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Chutika
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Srisuttiyakorn
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology Division, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Kaleigh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bulloch
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. nemanja.rodic@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Nemanja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rodic
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.|Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bosenberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ariyan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Narayan
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology Division, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.|Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.|Department of Epidemiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Bonnie E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Gould Rothberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. anjela.galan@yale.edu.|Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. anjela.galan@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Anjela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D015726:Giant Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: clinicopathologic parameters; melanoma; multinucleated giant cells; pathologic staging; retrospective study