Dermatológia pre prax 4/2012

A contribution about a proliferative activity as a histomorphological prognostic parameter in malignant melanoma of the skin

Malignant melanoma of the skin is one of the most aggressive and prognostically one of the most unfavorable malignant tumors in humans with continuously rising incidence worldwide. For these reasons, there are increasing demands on improvement of its diagnostics and identification of such clinico-pathological and currently even molecular markers, which could predict a disease outcome and modify futher patient‘s management. Assessment of a proliferative activity of tumor cells immunohistochemically by antibodies against Ki-67 antigen (Ki-67 index) is important histomorphological parameters in a majority of malignant neoplasms. In melanocytic lesions, it mainly serves to distinguish dysplastic nevi from initial melanomas and in differential diagnosis of borderline lesions and lesions with uncertain dignity. According to most studies, in malignant melanoma, Ki-67 index is a considerable indicator of tumor growth progression and important histological prognosticator. However, more exact relationship between Ki-67 expression and further prognostic parameters remains quite unclear. The authors of the article provide the basic informations about the problematics of proliferation activity assessment in cutaneous malignat melanoma as a part of the biopsy examination and they present the results of own group of the patients.

Keywords: malignant melanoma, proliferation activity, Ki-67 index.