Premium
Tumor‐associated alpha‐2‐macroglobulin in human melanomas
Author(s) -
Matoska J.,
Wahlstrom T.,
Vaheri A.,
Bizik J.,
Grofova M.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910410307
Subject(s) - melanoma , pathology , tumor cells , medicine , epithelioid cell , antibody , primary tumor , cell culture , peroxidase , immunohistochemistry , cancer research , biology , metastasis , cancer , immunology , enzyme , biochemistry , genetics
We and others have previously shown that human melanoma cell lines in culture synthesize alpha‐2‐macroglobulin (α 2 M). We have now studied melanomas from 30 patients for the presence of α 2 M using the peroxidase anti‐peroxidase technique on histologic sections from paraffin‐embedded tissues and primary antibody raised against tumor‐associated α 2 M in rabbits. α 2 M was detected in 10 of the 30 melanomas studied. In all but 2 cases the presence of α 2 M was restricted to solitary tumor cells or to solitary foci of tumor tissue. In one case of melanoma almost all tumor cells were positive for α 2 M, while in the others between 20% and 50% of tumor cells were positive. In all but one of the melanomas, the positivity was characteristic of epithelioid or large‐cell type or was confined to this component in melanomas with more than one cell type. In 4 positive cases, differences in the extent of α 2 M‐containing tumor tissue were observed between primary tumor and metastases or metastases from different localizations, with equivocal trend. Clinical follow‐up of the melanoma patients suggested that α 2 M‐positivity tends to correlate with an unfavorable prognosis.