Diagnostic Pathology
Fatemeh Montazer; Seyed Mohammad Heshmati; Salar Asgari; Shabnam Mollazadehghomi
Abstract
Conjunctival melanoma is an uncommon tumor that is likely to recur and carries an overall mortality rate of approximately 30%. Melanoma arises from melanocytes, most often in sun-exposed skin. Less commonly, melanoma originates from other tissues such as the uvea, rectum, mouth, respiratory ...
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Conjunctival melanoma is an uncommon tumor that is likely to recur and carries an overall mortality rate of approximately 30%. Melanoma arises from melanocytes, most often in sun-exposed skin. Less commonly, melanoma originates from other tissues such as the uvea, rectum, mouth, respiratory tract, and conjunctiva. Conjunctival melanoma represents only 1.6% of all noncutaneous melanoma. Herein, we reported a case of conjunctival melanoma followed by reviewing the literature to provide an optimal diagnostic approach.
Dermatopathology
Pouri Salehi; Farzaneh Tafvizi; Kambiz Kamyab Hesari
Abstract
Background & Objective: Malignant melanoma is the fatal cutaneous neoplasm which is curable by the early diagnosis. The expression of occludin protein which is an integral membrane protein is altered in an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Although, recent studies provide sufficient evidence ...
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Background & Objective: Malignant melanoma is the fatal cutaneous neoplasm which is curable by the early diagnosis. The expression of occludin protein which is an integral membrane protein is altered in an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Although, recent studies provide sufficient evidence supporting the functional importance of occludin in cancer, the prognostic significance of occludin expression levels in melanoma remains obscure. The aim of this study was to determine occludin expression level and itscorrelation with clinicopathological features of the patients with melanoma. Methods: The occludin mRNA level was compared between paraffin-embedded tissues of 40 patients with melanoma and 10 subjects with normal skin. The quality and quantity of the RNA was determined and occludin expression level was measured using Real-time PCR and ∆∆CT computational technique. Result: Theoccludin mRNA level reduced five-fold in the melanoma patients compared to the control group (P=0.000). No significant difference was observed between male and female cases (P=0.533). No significant correlation was observed between occludin mRNA level, mitotic count (P=0.252), and Breslow levels (P=0.171) Conclusion: We can conclude that down-regulation of occludin expression in the patients with melanoma is a hallmark of cancer progression and it might be used as a prognostic factor. No significant correlation was found between occludin gene expression and clinicopathological characteristics including Clark level, Breslow staging, mitotic count, age and gender (P<0.05).
Dermatopathology
Soheila Nasiri; Zahra Asadi- kani; Fatemeh Nabavi; Marjan Saeedi
Volume 13, Issue 3 , July 2018, , Pages 377-378
Abstract
Dear Editor-in-ChiefMalignant melanoma is a tumor arising from melanocyte; this tumor rarely occurs before puberty, with higher mortality rate in males and better survival rate in female patients affected by metastatic melanoma (1, 2). These facts propose that a relationship and association may exist ...
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Dear Editor-in-ChiefMalignant melanoma is a tumor arising from melanocyte; this tumor rarely occurs before puberty, with higher mortality rate in males and better survival rate in female patients affected by metastatic melanoma (1, 2). These facts propose that a relationship and association may exist between estrogens and melanoma. The effects of estrogens are mediated by estrogen receptor alpha and beta (3) that are members of the nuclear hormone receptor family. Estrogen receptors act by ligand-dependent binding to the estrogen-response element, leading to transcriptional regulation of target genes (4). Although these receptors have a high degree of homology in the DNA-binding domain, they are different in their N-terminal and ligand-binding domain (E-domain) (5). Moreover; the effects of these two receptors are also different, while estrogen receptor alpha is associated with stimulation of growth. Estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) is associated with suppression of stimulation or inhibition of cells from multiplying (2). A number of reports show either a decreased expression of ERbeta messenger RNA and ERbeta protein or an increased estrogen receptor alpha/beta mRNA ratio in tumor versus normal tissue in several cancers such as breast, ovary, colon, and prostate (6, 7). As the expression of ERbeta in melanocytic lesions is controversial and finding new diagnostic methods to differentiate between benign and malignant melanocytic lesions is essential, the current study was conducted using immunohistochemical staining to characterize the expression of ERbeta in dysplastic nevi and melanoma. The expression of ERbeta was investigated in 10 patients with melanoma (five male and five female) and 10 patients with dysplastic nevi (seven male and three female) at the Department of Dermatology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran. All cases underwent immunohistochemical analysis according to the method described by de Giorgi et al. (2, 8). Only one of the patients with melanoma had ERbeta expression of grade III and the other nine patients had grade I, but all the dysplastic nevi had grade III staining. Comparison of melanocytes staining levels in the two mentioned groups with the Mann-Whitney U-test revealed a significant difference between estrogen receptor beta staining samples (P-value=0.0002). Results of the current study suggested a probable role for estrogen receptors in melanoma; in addition, it proposed ERbeta as a valuable diagnostic marker to differentiate between benign and malignant melanocytic lesions; however, according to the relatively small number of patients, further comprehensive studies should be conducted to confirm the current studyresults.
Akbar Safaei; Seyed Masood Tabib; Mohamad Reza Farzaneh; Jahanbanoo Shahryari; Mohamad Bahmaniar
Volume 9, Issue 3 , July 2014, , Pages 213-218
Abstract
Although gastrointestinal involvement by metastatic malignant melanoma is common but primary gastrointestinal (GI) melanoma has been reported in rare cases. In this study we report two cases of primary gastrointestinal malignant melanoma that one of them is a known case of neurofibromatosis type 1(NF1). ...
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Although gastrointestinal involvement by metastatic malignant melanoma is common but primary gastrointestinal (GI) melanoma has been reported in rare cases. In this study we report two cases of primary gastrointestinal malignant melanoma that one of them is a known case of neurofibromatosis type 1(NF1). Both cases showed no evidence of any lesions in skin and eye. Malignant melanoma of GI tract in patient with neurofibroma is reported with hypothesis of a possible relation between two pathologies. Both primary GI melanoma and combination of NF1 with primary GI melanoma are rare entities discussed in this article.
Seyed Ali Ahmadi; Fahimeh Asadi Amoli; Katayoun Gohari Moghaddam
Volume 3, Issue 3 , June 2008, , Pages 151-156
Abstract
Background and Objective: The frequency and pattern of eye neoplasms differ in various geographic areas. Our aim was to determine the distribution of patient age, gender, ocular tumor origin, location and histological type in our region. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, ...
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Background and Objective: The frequency and pattern of eye neoplasms differ in various geographic areas. Our aim was to determine the distribution of patient age, gender, ocular tumor origin, location and histological type in our region. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all of the 384 eye globe enucleation cases carried out during a 10-year period in Farabi Medical Center in Tehran were selected and reviewed. The inflammatory and non-tumoral conditions were excluded. Results: Out of 350 primary tumors, 344 (98.6%) were malignant including 248 cases of retinoblastomas (70.9%), 76 cases of (21.7%) melanomas and 14 cases of (4%) squamous cell carcinomas. Mean ages for these tumors were 3.2, 51 and 64.8 years respectively. Overall the tumors were 1.15 times more frequent in left eye and 1.53 times more common in males. Out of 248 cases of retinoblastomas, only 12 (4.8%) cases were bilateral (mean age 3.46 years; male to female ratio 1.4:1). Some rare cases in our series included a primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma of choroid, two choroidal leiomyomas and an adenocarcinoma of the retinal pigment epithelium. Conclusion: The overall frequency of the three most common primary malignancies in our series was similar to the reported Asian countries but slightly differed with western countries in terms of lower incidence of melanoma here. Also bilateral retinoblastoma was less frequent here and occurred in a slightly older age. The actual frequency of metastatic eye tumors could not be evaluated precisely due to lack of systematic autopsy data.