Percentage of aberrant cells in uveal melanoma correlates with the patient’s prognosis

Abstract

AbstractPurpose Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common type of intra‐ocular malignancy in adults with an annual incidence of 5‐7 cases per million. Almost half of all patients with UM eventually die due to often late appearing metastases. Several clinical, pathological, and genetic factors have been identified as prognostic markers in UM. Non‐random chromosomal alterations for instance are present in over 80% of cases and complete loss of chromosome 3, (seen in 50% of all UM) relates to a 4‐year overall survival rate of only 30%.Methods Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) can be used to evaluate aneuploidy in the tumour cells. This FISH technique enables an in situ analysis of exact number/ percentage of tumour cells displaying that particular chromosomal aberration. Tumour heterogeneity has been observed in UM and an obvious question is whether lower percentages of abnormal cells are related to a change in patient’s outcome or prognosis.Results In this study, we assessed the percentages of aberrant tumour cells with FISH for each tumour (N=221) using chromosome 3 and 8 probes.Conclusion For both anomalies we could demonstrate that a high percentage aberrant tumour cells correlate well with a significantly worse prognosis for the patient. Commercial interest