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1From the Departments of Ophthalmology, 2Clinical Genetics, and 3Ophthalmopathology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, and the 4Rotterdam Eye Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. Karyotypes of 74 primary uveal melanomas were analyzed with respect to the presence or absence of chromosomal gains and losses. In the analysis, classic clinical and histopathologic parameters were analyzed together with the chromosomal aberrations.
RESULTS. At a median follow-up of 43 months, 34 patients had died or had metastatic disease. Clonal chromosomal abnormalities were present in 59 tumors. The most frequent chromosomal abnormalities involved chromosome 8 (53%); loss of chromosome 3, p-arm (41%) and q-arm (42%); partial loss of chromosome 1, p-arm (24%); and abnormalities in chromosome 6 that resulted in gain of 6p (18%) and/or loss of 6q (28%). Less-frequent aberrations were abnormalities in chromosome 16, in particular loss of chromosome 16 q-arm (16%). In the univariate analysis, loss of chromosome 3, largest tumor diameter, gain in 8q, and mixed/epithelioid cell type in the tumor compared with tumors without these chromosomal changes or with a spindle cell type was associated with decreased disease-free survival. When corrected for confounding variables, significance of gain of 8q and cell type was decreased, whereas the significance of loss of chromosome 3p or 3q and largest tumor diameter remained the same.
CONCLUSIONS. Monosomy 3 and largest tumor diameter are the most significant in determining survival of patients with uveal melanoma. Abnormalities in the q-arm of chromosome 16 are relatively common in uveal melanoma, but are not associated with survival or other cytogenetic or histopathologic parameters.
Loss of chromosome 1, p-arm, was observed in metastases,2 and concurrent loss of 1p and 3 is associated with decreased survival.3 4 Furthermore, monosomy 3 is considered to be an early event in UM, and several studies have shown that it is a strong predictor of survival.5 6 7 Loss of chromosome 3 is frequently associated with amplification of 8q, often seen as isochromosome 8, q-arm.8 9
Recently, Hoglund et al.10 elucidated a common genetic pathway for both uveal and cutaneous melanoma. Monosomy 3 probably occurs as an early event, and loss of 1p, 8p, and gain of 8q as secondary events.
Regions of chromosomal loss are thought to harbor tumor-suppressor genes and regions of gain, oncogenes. Previous cytogenetic analyses have focused in general on the known aberrations. In this study, we performed cytogenetic analysis on short-term cell cultures of fresh tissue from 74 primary UMs to characterize all chromosomal changes and correlate these changes with clinical and histopathologic parameters. Significant prognostic parameters for UM, at high-risk for metastases, were identified.
| Materials and Methods |
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Cytogenetic Analysis
Chromosome preparations were made according to standard procedures and stained with acridine orange or atebrine to obtain R or Q banding. Cytogenetic abnormalities were described in accordance with the ISCN (International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature, 1995).11
Data Classification
Based on the cytogenetic analysis, tumors were classified for gain and or loss for all chromosomal regions, p-arm or q-arm. When different subclones were identified, only the cytogenetic findings of the largest clone were classified. Chromosomal regions with loss in >10% of all tumors and gain in >15% of all tumors were included for analysis. Tumors were identified as small (
12 mm) and large (>12 mm).
Statistical Analysis
The primary end point for disease-free survival (DFS) was the time to development of metastatic disease, whereas death due to other causes was censored. The influence of single prognostic factors on DFS was assessed using the log rank test (for categorical variables) or the Cox proportional hazards analysis (for continuous variables), and Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted to illustrate the differences in survival. To examine the possibility that other clinical, histopathologic, or chromosomal variations may affect the prognosis we performed Cox proportional hazards analysis for each confounding variable. An effect was considered significant if the P
0.05. The odds-ratios with corresponding probabilities were calculated to identify association between the different parameters (SPSS, ver. 11.0; SPSS, Chicago, IL).
| Results |
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Histopathology
All tumors were confirmed histopathologically as UM. Based on cell type, 16 tumors were classified as epithelioid, 24 as mixed, and 34 tumors as spindle. The mean tumor diameter and thickness were 13.2 mm (range, 619 mm) and 8.4 mm (range, 222 mm), respectively. Four tumors were located in the ciliary body and 70 were located in the choroid. Of the tumors located in the choroid four showed involvement of the ciliary body.
Cytogenetic Analysis
Seventy-four UMs were analyzed for cytogenetic changes (Supplementary Table S1, http://www.iovs.org/cgi/content/full/47/9/3703/DC1) and classified for gain and loss in all chromosomal regions (Table 1) . Clonal chromosomal abnormalities were present in 59 tumors. The most frequent chromosomal abnormality involved chromosome 8, trisomy of chromosome 8 or gain in 8q, most often in the form of an i(8q) (53%). Other abnormalities involved loss of chromosome 3, p-arm (41%) and q-arm (42%), partial loss of 1p (24%), and abnormalities in chromosome 6, resulting in gain of 6p (18%) and/or loss of 6q (28%). Other less-frequent aberrations were abnormalities of chromosome 16, in particular loss of chromosome 16, q-arm (16%; Fig. 1 ). Other chromosomal aberrations, such as loss of 6p, 9p, 15p, 15q, 21p, and 22p and gain of 2p, 2q, 7q, 9p, and 11q were present but did not reach 10%.
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| Discussion |
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In UM, numerous parameters have been used to predict survival, with the conventional parameters being tumor size, tumor location, cell type, and vascular patterns.12 None of these factors is entirely solid, and there has been considerable variation in interpretation among observers. In contrast to a previous report,13 we did not find chromosomes 11 and 21 to occur very often (Table 1) , and therefore these aberrations were not included in the analysis. In addition, we identified loss of 16q. Loss of chromosome 16, in particular 16q, also mentioned in earlier reports10 13 occurred in >10% of the UMs. Even though it was not significantly associated with DFS, it still may be involved in tumor progression. A remarkable association was shown for loss of 16q with loss of 1p. Delineation of a region on 16q may depict a region of interest with possible candidate genes. Other tumors, such as breast cancer and neuroectodermal tumors have also shown deletion on 16q.14 15 In these tumors, candidate genes have not yet been identified. Because UM cells are derived from neuroectodermal tissue this might be of potential interest. In many reports outcome was correlated with tumor location.7 16 Because we had limited sample size in the group tumors located in the ciliary body, we were not able to make reliable assumptions on association of outcome with tumor location. LTD in our study was histopathologically measured. This parameter may be used noninvasively in a clinical setting (measurement on ultrasound) and may be the most reliable noninvasive prognostic parameter. However, there is a variation between clinical and histopathologic measurements. The tumor size measured on ultrasound is in general larger than the histopathologic measurement. In contrast, the detection of specific chromosomal aberrations by routine fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), and karyotyping provides a more objective measurement of potential tumor behavior. Identification of monosomy 3 in a tumor sample is widely accepted as the most reliable prognostic parameter.5 6 7 Monosomy of chromosome 3 is considered an early event, occurring before alterations of chromosome 8, 1, and 6.5 6 7 Moreover, it may cause isochromosome formation of especially isochromosomes 6, p-arm, and 8, q-arm.8 9 Table 3 may also support this hypothesis, because the odds ratios for loss of chromosome 3, p-arm or q-arm, and gain of 8q or loss of 8p were higher than the combination of losss of 3p or 3q and gain of 8p. However, in our series, we cannot conclude the same for isochromosome 6, p-arm. In addition, gain of 8q was significantly associated with survival in the univariate analysis (Table 2) , but when corrected for confounding variables, such as vascular pattern, cell type, LTD, and 3p or 3q loss, significance was absent, implying that gain of 8q occurs together with at least one of those other variables. On the contrary, when this same procedure was followed for 3p or 3q loss we observed that the significance remained. In Table 3 the odds ratios were shown for different chromosomal parameters. If we put the odds ratios in the following order, 8q gain, and consequently 8p loss, follows monosomy 3, and loss of 1p and 16q occur thereafter. This is consistent with the findings observed by Hoglund et al.10 Moreover, tumor diameter is associated with most of the chromosomal aberrations, implying that larger tumors have more aberrations. Our study involves patient samples from relatively large tumors that were treated by enucleation. Considering monosomy 3 as an early event,17 it is likely that it would be observed in even the smallest amount of tissue despite the heterogeneity of UM. Though, there are no studies to date that confirm the uniform distribution of cytogenetic abnormalities in UM, and it is at least theoretically possible that small amounts of tissue (e.g., used for karyotyping, FISH, and CGH) do not contain the cytogenetic markers of interest.
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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Submitted for publication January 31, 2006; revised March 31 and April 22, 2006; accepted June 19, 2006.
Disclosure: E. Kilic, None; W. van Gils, None; E. Lodder, None; H.B. Beverloo, None; M.E. van Til, None; C.M. Mooy, None; D. Paridaens, None; A. de Klein, None; G.P.M. Luyten, None
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Corresponding author: Gregorius P. M. Luyten, Department of Ophthalmology, Erasmus MC, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands; g.p.m.luyten{at}erasmusmc.nl.
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