[Ocular melanoma: immunohistochemical evaluation of the potentially predictive markers of prognosis. Preliminary results].

PURPOSE: To study the characteristics of certain biological parameters, many of which have been recently discovered, to assess their possible contribution to the prognosis of ocular melanoma.

MATERIAL: and methods: 25 patients with ocular and orbital melanoma treated at the Reims Regional Hospital since 1993 were included in the retrospective study. The surgical specimens were put in formalin 10%, then in paraffin. Five proteins were analyzed retrospectively: topoisomerase I, topoisomerase IIalpha, ICBP90, Ki67, and P53 on 200 cells per case.

RESULTS

Of the 25 tumors from 14 men and 11 women, 15 were iris and ciliary body melanomas and ten choroidal melanomas. Histopathologic analysis showed 12 spindle-cell-type melanomas, seven epithelioid-cell-type melanomas and six mixed-cell-type melanomas. The immunohistochemical study found a significant difference in distribution between the cellular types for the topoisomerase IIalpha and Ki67 antibodies. Eight patients had metastasis, six of whom died. The metastasis came from three mixed-cell-type melanomas, three epithelioid-cell-type melanomas, and two spindle-cell-type melanomas. On the other hand, six cases of sclera infiltration were discovered among these eight patients.

CONCLUSION

Several prognostic factors seem to be involved in the progression of melanoma: sclera infiltration seems to be essential in our study. Its rate seems to increase with the tumor size and in epithelioid-cell-type melanomas. The correlation between the different immunomarkers and the appearance of metastasis has not yet been verified.