title: Prognostic significance of immunohistochemical epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers in skin melanoma patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate secreted protein acidic and rich in cystein (SPARC) and neural cadherin (NCAD), which are associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition in primary skin melanoma and nodal metastases and their prognostic impact in melanoma patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Expression of proteins was assessed by immunochemistry in archival paraffin samples from 103 primary melanoma tumors and 16 nodal metastases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Increased expression of SPARC and NCAD in primary skin melanoma was associated with decreased overall survival, adverse clinicopathological features and particularly with microsatellitosis (SPARC) and ulceration (NCAD). In univariate Cox regression analysis, both biomarkers were significantly associated with the risk of death; the multivariate Cox regression analysis identified no significance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most important result of our study was that we confirmed the strict correlation between SPARC and NCAD expression and clinicopathological parameters related with melanoma progression, which is a specific clinical equivalent of the molecular mechanisms of epithelial-mesenchymal transition process and confirms its key role in the disease outcome.
authors: Department of Clinical Oncology, Tadeusz Koszarowski Regional Oncology Center, Opole, Katowicka 66a, Poland.
authors: Malgorzata
authors: M
authors: Pieniazek
authors: Department of Pathomorphology & Oncological Cytology, Wroclaw Medical University, Borowska 213, 50-556 Wroclaw, Poland.
authors: Piotr
authors: P
authors: Donizy
authors: Department of Pathomorphology & Oncological Cytology, Wroclaw Medical University, Borowska 213, 50-556 Wroclaw, Poland.
authors: Agnieszka
authors: A
authors: Halon
authors: Department of Statistics, Wroclaw University of Economics, Komandorska 118-120, 53-345 Wroclaw, Poland.
authors: Marek
authors: M
authors: Leskiewicz
authors: Department of Oncology & Division of Surgical Oncology, Wroclaw Medical University, pl. Hirszfelda 12, 53-413 Wroclaw, Poland.|Lower Silesian Oncology Centre, pl. Hirszfelda 12, 53-413 Wroclaw, Poland.
authors: Rafal
authors: R
authors: Matkowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism; D018450:Disease Progression; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015676:Osteonectin / Q000378:metabolism; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015820:Cadherins; D015676:Osteonectin; C577241:SPARC protein, human
keywords: N-cadherin; SPARC; biomarker; epithelial–mesenchymal transition; immunohistochemistry; melanoma; microsatellitosis; prognosis; ulceration