engleski

Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor as marker for detection of circulating melanoma cells in patients with stage I-III melanoma

The aim of this study was to determine prognostic value of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) as a marker for the detection of circulating melanoma cells in stage I-III melanoma patients and compare it to tyrosinase. Blood samples from 179 melanoma patients in AJCC stages I-III and 40 healthy volunteers were analyzed. RNA was isolated from mononuclear cell fraction of the blood and assayed by RT-PCR for the expression of MITF and tyrosinase. All samples from healthy volunteers were negative for both MITF and tyrosinase. Out of 179 samples from melanoma patients 25 were positive for MITF, 14 for tyrosinase, and 2 for both MITF and tyrosinase. Analysis of MITF as an additional marker to tyrosinase improved detection of circulating melanoma cells in comparison to tyrosinase analysis alone (37 versus 14 positive patients). Positive value of MITF was associated with shorter progression-free survival (p=0.043), while there was no significant association between the value of MITF and overall survival. Value of MITF was selected with multivariate analysis as independent prognostic factor for progression-free survival, while the only independent prognostic factor for overall survival was stage of disease. This study has shown that MITF is a specific marker for detection of circulating melanoma cells that has a prognostic value in melanoma patients. Analysis of MITF in addition to tyrosinase improved the detection of circulating melanoma cells in melanoma patients.

melanoma; microphthalmia-associated transcription factor; tyrosinase; circulating cancer cells; RT-PCR

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