Abstract
P 054
Circulating melanoma cells in peripheral blood of patients with uveal melanoma before and after different therapies and association with prognostic parameters: a pilot study
Daniela Süsskind1, Anja Ulmer2, Bernhard Spitzer3, Martin S. Spitzer1, Karl U. Bartz-Schmidt1, Salvatore Grisanti4
1Department für Augenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen, Tübingen; 2Universitäts-Hautklinik, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen, Tübingen; 3Bernstein Center, Computational Neuroscience, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin; 4Augenklinik, Campus Lübeck, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck
Objective
To evaluate whether tumour therapy for malignant uveal melanoma leads to a shedding of melanoma cells into the systemic circulation.
Methods
94 peripheral blood samples from 81 patients with malignant uveal melanoma were collected before and after different tumour therapies and the number of circulating melanoma cells (CMC) was investigated (7 patients with enucleation, 49 patients with stereotactic radiotherapy, 19 patients with endoresection of the tumour, 15 patients with ruthenium-brachytherapy and 4 patients with transpupillary thermotherapy). A cellular approach was used to detect CMC through an immunocytologic assay with tumour cell enrichment by immunomagnetic cell sorting. The number of CMC were further analysed according to specific patient characteristics (age, sex, eye), tumour parameters (localisation, ciliary body involvement, tumour thickness, largest basal diameter, cell type, extraocular growth, TNM 6th edition, modified Augsburger´s alternative classification no.1), and development of metastasis.
Results
There was no significant difference between the number of CMC before and after the different therapies (p=0.78). There was also no significant association between established prognostic parameters of primary uveal melanoma and the detection of CMC (all p’s>0.05).The number of CMC was not related to development of metastasis in a short median follow-up time of 16 months (p>0.05).
Conclusions
No changes in CMC values were observed before and after different tumour therapies. In the majority of cases therapy does not lead to a shedding of detectable melanoma cells into the systemic circulation.
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