Human melanoma metastases demonstrate nonstochastic site-specific antigen heterogeneity that correlates with T-cell infiltration.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Metastasis heterogeneity presents a significant obstacle to the development of targeted cancer therapeutics. In this study, we sought to establish from a large series of human melanoma metastases whether there exists a determined pattern in tumor cellular heterogeneity that may guide the development of future targeted immunotherapies.

Experimental design

From a cohort of 1,514 patients with metastatic melanoma, biopsies were procured over a 17-year period from 3,086 metastatic tumors involving various anatomic sites. To allow specific tumor cell profiling, we used established immunohistochemical methods to perform semiquantitative assessment for a panel of prototypic melanocyte differentiation antigens (MDA), including gp100, MART-1, and tyrosinase. To gain insight i

SUBMITTER: Bartlett EK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4024351 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature