VITILIGO-ASSOCIATED AND MELANOMA-ASSOCIATED HYPOPIGMENTATION - A SIMILAR APPEARANCE BUT A DIFFERENT MECHANISM

The significance of the association between the appearance of hypopigm entation in patients with melanoma and the prognosis is still not clea r. It was postulated that, in melanoma, an immune response is responsi ble for the destruction of the malignant as well as the normal pigment ed cells, and that the eventual development of vitiligo-like patches i n melanoma patients improves their prognosis. We studied the level of anti-melanoma antibodies in the sera of patients with melanoma with hy popigmentation and compared it to the titer in patients with melanoma only, to the titer of patients with vitiligo, and to that of healthy s ubjects. Only IgG-type antibodies were found in the sera of patients w ith vitiligo, with melanoma, or with melanoma with hypopigmentation. N o significant differences in the titer of anti-melanoma antibodies cou ld be found between the patients with melanoma when subgrouped accordi ng to the initial stage and the status of the disease at the time when the test was carried out. Statistically significantly (P <0.001) high er titers of antibodies were detected in the sera of patients with vit iligo in comparison to the lower titers in the other groups. Our resul ts point to a similar immunobiological status, which probably does not give any advantage to patients with melanoma with hypopigmentation co mpared to patients without it. The appearance of hypopigmentary plaque s in melanoma patients should be regarded, in our opinion, as a concom itant immunological phenomenon of the disease.