TUMOR VASCULARITY IS NOT A PROGNOSTIC FACTOR FOR MALIGNANT-MELANOMA OF THE SKIN

Tumor vascularity has been proposed as a prognostic indicator for a nu mber of solid tumors. Although a correlation between microvessel numbe r and metastatic behavior has also been suggested for cutaneous melano ma, the small number of cases studied to date allows, one to draw only preliminary conclusions In this study, we have assessed tumor vascula rity in cutaneous melanoma by comparing 60 cases of metastasizing and non-metastasizing tumors matched for tumor thickness, age, sex, and an atomic site. Ulex europaeus agglutinin I appeared to be the most suita ble vascular marker for this study. Our results indicate that there wa s no statistically significant difference between the two groups with regard to tumor vascularity. Even after identifying 15 cases of thin ( <1.0 mm thick) melanoma, there was no significant difference in the nu mber of microvessels between metastatizing and non-metastasizing tumor s. Comparison of patterns of vascular microarchitecture also failed to discriminate between the two groups. Thus, our results indicate that tumor vascularity may not be an independent prognostic factor for cuta neous melanoma.