gms | German Medical Science

Background: In uveal melanoma monosomy 3 is significantly correlated with mortality. Therefore, testing of chromosome 3 in tumors is useful in elucidating patients' prognosis.

Patients: From 1998 to 2008 we determined chromosome 3 status in > 400 uveal melanomas from enucleated eyes by microsatellite analysis.

Results: We were able to collect follow up data from 347 patients. Monosomy 3 was found in 194 (55.6%) tumors, disomy 3 in 122 (35.2%), partial monosomy 3 in 16 (4.6%) and allelic imbalance in 15 (4.3%) tumors. Median follow up time was 4,1 years. Kaplan Meier analysis revealed similar mortality rates for patients with monosomy 3 and those with allelic imbalance in their tumors. In both groups about half of the patients died of metastases.

In contrast good survival was observed for patients with either disomy 3 or partial monosomy 3 in their tumors. In both groups less than 10% of patients died of metastatic disease. To identify markers that might predict poor survival in the group of tumors with disomy 3 we associated chromosome 8 alterations, tumor cell type, ciliary body involvement and sex of patient with metastatic disease in tumors with disomy 3. Fisher`s exact test revealed a significant (p<0.0001) difference in cell type distribution between disomy 3 tumors that did (n=14) and those that did not develop metastases. Tumors with disomy 3 that developed metastases are less frequently of spindle cell type (42%) compared to all tumors with disomy 3 (88%).

Conclusion: Determination of chromosome 3 status can be useful in elucidating patients´ prognosis to point out an individual work-life balance.