HMB-45 IN CUTANEOUS MELANOCYTIC TUMORS - A STUDY OF 158 CASES AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Monoclonal antibody (MoAb) specificity for melanocytic tumors in forma lin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue is one of the main goals of cur rent immunohistochemistry in dermatology. The recently introduced MoAb , HMB-45 has demonstrated to be a good marker for these tumors. We car ried out a study using MoAb HMB-45 in 158 formalin-fixed and paraffin- embedded blocks: 127 cutaneous melanocytic tumors, 19 cutaneous non-me lanocytic tumors, 5 normal adult skin biopsies and 7 lymph node metast atic melanoma. These sections were also tested with S-100 policlonal a ntibody (PoAb). HMB-45 reactivity was observed in all the melanocytic tumors except for Intradermal Nevi. All MM showed reactivity, however much less reactivity was detected in desmoplastic malignant melanoma a nd in lymph node metastates. We have also detected HMB-45 reactivity i n histologically normal melanocytes in several of the melanocytic and non-melanocytic lesions. With this paper we intend to show our experie nce with HMB-45, compare our results with other authors and review the available data on HMB-45 in the literature.