O. Merimsky et al., VITILIGO-ASSOCIATED AND MELANOMA-ASSOCIATED HYPOPIGMENTATION - A SIMILAR APPEARANCE BUT A DIFFERENT MECHANISM, Cancer immunology and immunotherapy, 38(6), 1994, pp. 411-416
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.