Serum epidermal growth factor receptor levels in patients with malignant melanoma

Summary Background Epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR ) is known to be abnormally expressed in many human carcinomas, suggesting that there may be an increase in serum EGFR levels in patients with malignant melanoma ( MM ) and that this might be a possible new tumour marker. Aim To assess whether serum EGFR levels might be a marker of MM . Methods Serum samples were obtained from 66 patients with MM and 12 healthy controls, and EGFR levels were measured by double‐determinant ELISA . Results Patients with in situ or stage I MM had significantly higher serum EGFR levels compared with healthy controls. Interestingly, serum EGFR levels decreased gradually with the stage of the tumour, being highest at stage I and lowest at stage IV . There was also a trend towards a reverse correlation between tumour thickness and serum EGFR levels. Moreover, a longitudinal study identified a trend for serum EGFR levels in patients with preoperative MM to decrease compared with patients with recurrent MM . Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first report investigating the serum EGFR levels of patients with MM , and gives new insight into the relationship between EGFR and MM . We found that serum EGFR levels were significantly increased in patients with early‐stage MM such as in situ and stage I tumours. Measurements of serum EGFR levels might be of clinical value in the detection of early‐stage MM .