New biomarker identifies uveal melanoma patients at high risk for metastasis

Source:EurekAlert, February 2016

MIAMI, March 1, 2016– A study by J. William Harbour, M.D., associate director for Basic Research and leader of the Eye Cancer Site Disease Group at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and colleagues published today in Clinical Cancer Research details the discovery of a biomarker that puts patients at a higher risk for metastasis of uveal melanoma. Among uveal melanomas categorized as class 1, those with high levels of the biomarker PRAME mRNA were more likely to metastasize than those with low levels of PRAME mRNA, indicating that patients with this biomarker be monitored more closely for metastatic disease.

The estimated five-year rate of metastasis was 0 percent for PRAME mRNA-low class 1 uveal melanomas and 38 percent for PRAME mRNA-high class 1 uveal melanomas. This research builds upon Harbour’s identification of class 1 and 2 uveal melanomas in 2004.

There are about 2,000 to 3,000 cases of uveal melanoma diagnosed each year in the United States, according to Harbour, who is also a professor and vice chairman for Translational Research, the Mark J. Daily Endowed Chair, and director of the Ocular Oncology Service at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, part of UHealth – the University of Miami Health System. He explained that uveal melanomas are categorized into class 1 and class 2 tumors by gene expression profiling and that class 1 tumors have a much lower chance of metastasizing than class 2 tumors.

“However, about 10 percent of patients with class 1 uveal melanoma do develop metastasis," said Harbour. “The main purpose of this study was to identify a clinically useful biomarker for this subgroup of class 1 uveal melanomas, which in turn might help in the development of precision medicines for melanoma patients.