ASSESSMENT OF CHROMOSOME-3 COPY NUMBER IN OCULAR MELANOMA USING FLUORESCENCE IN-SITU HYBRIDIZATION

Recent reports have indicated that monosomy 3 is a marker of poor prog nosis in uveal melanoma. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed on fresh touch preparations from 17 uveal, and 5 conjunctiv al melanomas, using the chromosome 3 centromeric probe, D3Z1. Of the 1 7 uveal melanomas, all of which originated in the choroid, two cases r evealed a monosomy of chromosome 3. One of the conjunctival melanomas contained a major clone that was trisomic for chromosome 3. and anothe r conjunctival melanoma contained a tetrasomic population. FISH, using the al-satellite probe for chromosome 3 on uveal melanoma imprints, a llows one to predict which patients are potentially at a higher risk o f relapse. Multiplication, rather than deletion, of copies of chromoso me 3 in conjunctival melanomas may be a nonspecific aberration, perhap s indicative of polyploidy, a characteristic of tumor progression. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1997.