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An immunophenotypic survey of malignant melanomas
Author(s) -
BISHOP P.W.,
MENASCE L.P.,
YATES A.J.,
WIN N.A.,
BANERJEE S.S.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2559.1993.tb00474.x
Subject(s) - immunophenotyping , concomitant , medicine , pathology , immunohistochemistry , melanoma , negativity effect , sma* , staining , flow cytometry , immunology , cancer research , psychology , social psychology , mathematics , combinatorics
An immunohistochemical study of 106 malignant melanoma specimens from 59 patients, using formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded material, is reported. Negativity for HMB‐45 was seen in 11% of specimens. The rate of positivity with CAM 5.2 was 7%. One specimen showed α‐smooth muscle actin (αSMA) positivity. For 11 of the 12 cases in which anomalous immunophenotypes were seen, multiple specimens were available; nine of these showed evidence of an alteration in the immunophenotype between specimens. Comparing the primary tumours with local recurrences and metastases, there was, variously, loss of HMB‐45, S‐100 protein and NKI/C3 positivity, and acquisition of CAM 5.2 and αSMA positivity. In some cases, the change of immunophenotype appeared to occur in a single step. However, one case with six consecutive specimens showed evidence of progressive loss of HMB‐45, S‐100 protein and NKI/C3 with concomitant gain of CAM 5.2 staining. The implications for the use of immunophenotyping in diagnostic practice are discussed.