As several studies have demonstrated a relationship between decreased
serum selenium concentrations and the frequency of certain cancers, we
studied these concentrations in two kinds of cutaneous tumour cancer:
melanoma and epidermotropic cutaneous lymphoma. We first determined t
he predictive value of the selenium assay for the frequency of recurre
nces in stage I and II melanomas and then considered the relationship
between serum selenium concentrations before treatment and therapeutic
response. Two hundred melanomas (81 stage I, 63 stage II, 56 stage II
I) and 51 epidermotropic cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) (8 stage I,
24 stage II, 10 stage III, 9 stage IV) were included in the study. Se
lenium assays were performed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (9
2 +/- 16 mug/l in 30 normal subjects). Our study showed decreased seru
m selenium concentrations for melanoma (81 +/- 27 mug/l) and lymphoma
(78 +/- 36 mug/l) relative to disease severity. The concentration was
significantly lower (76 +/- 22) for stage I and II melanomas with recu
rrence within 2 years (31 patients), compared to those without recurre
nce (113 patients) (p < 0.05). Before treatment, it was higher in CTCL
with good response to treatment (89 +/-36) than in those without resp
onse (62 +/- 30) (p < 0.01). This study thus demonstrates the prognost
ic value of selenium assays in the follow-up of melanoma and CTCL.