The prognostic significance of microsatellites in cutaneous melanoma

Source: MDLinx, April 2020

This research attempted to ascertain the prognostic significance of microsatellites in histopathologically reviewed cases. Researchers documented 87 cases of primary cutaneous melanoma with the presence of microsatellites in the original pathology report and all histopathology slides available were reviewed and the findings were compared with clinical outcome. In this study, matched control cases were chosen for all confirmed microsatellites cases. It was demonstrated that melanomas with microsatellites as determined by the 8th edition American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system are thus aggressive tumors, correlated with significantly worse disease-free survival, overall survival, and melanoma-specific survival. The appearance of microsatellites is also correlated with sentinel node-positivity and local and in-transit recurrence. The study suggested that the growing distance of the microsatellite from the primary tumor is an independent adverse prognostic factor that warrants future investigation.