So. Abate et al., Role of RT-PCR tyrosinase detection in the monitoring of patients with advanced metastatic melanoma, MELANOMA RE, 10(6), 2000, pp. 545-555
In recent studies a new method has been proposed to detect circulating mela
noma cells in the peripheral blood of patients, based on the amplification
of the mRNA for tyrosinase, an enzyme involved in melanin biosynthesis that
is expressed only by melanocytic cells. The sensitivity and clinical relev
ance of this method are still controversial. In the present study, 596 bloo
d samples from 186 melanoma patients at various clinical tumour stages, tog
ether with samples from 25 healthy volunteers, were analysed with the aim o
f investigating the value of tyrosinase detection in predicting melanoma re
currence. We suggest a possible role for this marker in the monitoring of m
elanoma patients after the excision of regional lymph node metastases, and
provide evidence that tyrosinase is related to the status of disease in adv
anced metastatic patients. Moreover, chemotherapy administration appeared t
o influence tyrosinase determination and may explain the discrepancies in t
he reported percentages of positive samples. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins.