A variant in FTO gene shows association with histological ulceration in cutaneous melanoma.
Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Histological ulceration was first identified by Allen and Spitz in 1950 and later confirmed by Balch et al1 as an adverse prognostic factor in melanoma. The presence of ulceration implies not only considerable tumor thickness but also high mitotic index, carries high risk of metastasis and reflects a more biologically aggressive tumor. Moreover, ulcerated melanomas when compared with non-ulcerated melanomas of equivalent thickness or stage of diagnosis indicate poorer prognostic findings. Because ulceration appears to have such an important influence on survival rates independent of primary tumor thickness, the 8th American Joint committee on Cancer (AJCC) of 2017 still incorporates ulceration in the staging system for cutaneous melanoma (CM).2 In recent years, Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified susceptibility loci associated with the risk to develop melanoma and /or melanoma host phenotypes.3-7 However, much less is known about the association of these risk variants with biologic behavior of melanoma. Recently, Bourneuf et al reported that FTO gene associated with human melanoma might be involved in melanoma ulceration phenotype in porcine model.8 In an explorative post-hoc prospective study, we evaluated the association between already known melanoma susceptibility variants and histological ulceration. To our knowledge limited studies have addressed this objective and our study is first-to-date where specific GWAS single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of multiple genetic loci in humans have been used to predict histological ulceration.
Journal
Journal of Cutaneous Pathology
Publication Name
Journal of Cutaneous Pathology
Volume
47
ISBN/ISSN
1600-0560
Edition
N/A
Issue
1
Pages Count
4
Location
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Publisher
Wiley
Publisher Url
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Publish Date
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Date
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EISSN
N/A
DOI
10.1111/cup.13575