Tyrosinase m RNA i n B lood o f P atients W ith M elanoma Treated W ith A djuvant I nterferon

2002 
Purpose: To evaluate the clinical significance of the detection of circulating melanoma cells in patients treated with adjuvant interferon and to determine their potential value as a marker of interferon response. Patients and Methods: We prospectively analyzed 616 peripheral-blood samples from 120 melanoma patients with stage IIA (n 33), IIB (n 22), III (n 50), or IV (surgically resected) (n 15) disease receiving adjuvant interferon alfa-2b therapy. Tyrosinase mRNA was assayed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) as a marker of circulating melanoma cells before the start of interferon and every 2 to 3 months thereafter. Results: With a median follow-up time of 32.3 months (range, 7.1 to 77.5 months), 47 patients (39.8%) relapsed and 31 (26%) died. During adjuvant interferon treatment, 76 patients (64%) had undetected circulating melanoma cells and 44 patients (36%) had a positive RT-PCR result in at least one sample. Actuarial 5-year disease-free survival was 62% in patients with persistently negative RT-PCR during interferon treatment and 38% for patients with positive RT-PCR during interferon (P .02). Actuarial 5-year overall survival was 75% and 50%, respectively (P .03). Conclusion: Patients with melanoma and tyrosinase mRNA detected in the blood during adjuvant interferon therapy had a worse prognosis compared with patients with undetected tyrosinase mRNA during treatment. Further investigation into the detection of circulating melanoma cells as a surrogate marker of response to adjuvant interferon therapy is warranted. J Clin Oncol 20:4032-4039. © 2002 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.
    • Correction
    • Cite
    • Save
    • Machine Reading By IdeaReader
    30
    References
    0
    Citations
    NaN
    KQI
    []