PURPOSE Aberrant promoter hypermethylation of CpG islands is thought to play an important role in the inactivation of tumor-suppressor genes (TSGs) in cancer. Studies of cutaneous melanoma have reported a high methylation rate for MGMT, DAPK, RAR-b2, and RASSF1A. In colon cancer, SOCS-1, IGF-2, RUNX3, NEUROG1, and CACNA1G are commonly inactivated. The concomitant methylation of at least three o...

BACKGROUND The treatment of uveal melanoma has seen a shift towards eye conserving treatments. Efforts have been made towards the identification of patients at high risk of metastatic disease with the use of prognostic fine needle biopsy, Monosomy 3 a risk factor for metastatic death thought to occur early in the development of uveal melanoma. CASE PRESENTATION We report a case in which an at...

Many types of cancers metastasize to the eye. However, uveal melanoma metastasizing to the contralateral choroid is very rare. We report the case of a 68-year-old man with history of treated uveal melanoma of the right eye that developed metastasis to the liver and the choroid of the left eye. Ten years earlier, he was diagnosed to have uveal melanoma of the right eye and was initially treated ...

purpose : to describe the case of a 21-year-old patient with uveal effusion with no microphthalmia and any systemic disease that was treated with scleral window surgery and topical administration of mitomycin c (mmc) and zonulysis which was misdiagnose as a ring melanoma of cilliary body appeared shortly after the operation case report : a uveal effusion was detected in the eye. partial-thickne...

PURPOSE Constitutive activation of ERK1/2 controls proliferation of uveal melanoma cells. Because an autocrine fibroblast growth factor (FGF) activation loop controls ERK1/2 activation in many cancers, this study was conducted to examine the role of the FGF/FGF receptor autocrine loop in the ERK1/2-dependent proliferation and survival of uveal melanoma cells. METHODS Primary tumors and cell l...

The majority of uveal melanomas carry oncogenic mutations in the G proteins GNAQ and GNA11, with consequent activation of the MAPK pathway. Selective MEK inhibitors, such as selumetinib, have shown clinical benefit in uveal melanoma. However, mechanisms of drug resistance limit their efficacy in some patients. Analysis of MEK inhibitor-resistant uveal melanoma cell lines revealed the induction ...

RAF proteins are serine/threonine kinases that mediate cellular responses to growth signals by activating the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Mutations in the BRAF gene causing a V599E amino acid substitution that enhance the kinase activity have been described in >60% of cutaneous melanomas and premalignant melanocytic lesions. We have investigated the frequency of BRAF mutations at ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small non-coding RNAs that play central roles in diverse pathological processes. In this study, we investigated the effect of microRNA-182 (miR-182) on the development of posterior uveal melanomas. Initially, we demonstrated that miR-182 expression was dependent on p53 induction in uveal melanoma cells. Interestingly, transient transfection of miR-182 into cult...

OBJECTIVES SOX-10 has been shown to be a sensitive marker of cutaneous melanoma. This study aimed to evaluate Sox-10 expression in uveal melanoma. METHODS A total of 40 tissue blocks of enucleated eyes with uveal melanoma were cut and stained using an anti-SOX-10 mouse monoclonal antibody and HMB-45 antibody. RESULTS SOX-10 showed exclusive nuclear positivity in 100% of the uveal melanoma c...

PURPOSE Transcription factors regulating the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program contribute to carcinogenesis and metastasis in many tumors, including cutaneous melanoma. However, little is known about the role of EMT factors in the growth and metastatic dissemination of uveal melanoma cells. Here, we analyzed the expression and functions of the EMT factors ZEB1, Twist1, and Snai...