Tumor characteristics involved in the metastatic behaviour as an improvement in primary cutaneous melanoma prognostics

We report the results of a retrospective immunohistochemical study on routi nely fixed, paraffin embedded tissues from 147 primary cutaneous melanomas belonging to the classes pT3 and pT4, the development of which has been fol lowed for at feast five years. The parameters Cathepsin B, Cathepsin D, Col lagenase IV, Metallothionein and PCNA were selected from previous studies o n small collectives. All parameters showed statistically significant differ ences between tumors of the metastatic and the nonmetastatic group. Particu larly conspicuous was the expression of Cathepsin B, Cathepsin D and Collag enase IV at the dermal invading front of the tumors. Based on this data we present a procedure of combining these data with established clinical-histo logical parameters such as tumor thickness and ulceration to an integrated individual risk factor that improves the certainty of melanoma prognosis.