UVEAL MELANOMA CYTOKINES

Cytokines may be important in both the pathophysiology an ocular morbi dity associated with treated and untreated uveal melanomas. In this st udy we used message amplification phenotyping to identify cytokines pr esent in uveal melanoma samples. A number of cytokines were noted that have been associated with tumor progression, neovascularization, and inflammation in other malignancies. Interferongamma was commonly found in spindle cell tumors. Only one of 16 tumors had detectable levels o f TNF-alpha and this occured in one of two patients who developed meta static disease.