Estrogen and progesterone receptors expression in uveal melanoma tumor cells

Purpose: study of uveal melanoma (UM) cells receptor status to estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR). Material and methods. 22 patients (8 men and 14 women) with UM aged 22 to 76 (mean 54.3 ± 2.2 years) were subjected enucleation (n = 20) or fine-needle aspiration biopsy, depending on clinical indications. The material for cytological examination (n =22) was obtained from enucleated eyes by imprinting. A routine cytological study was performed to confirm the diagnosis, while at the second stage the method of immunocytochemistry (ICC) was used to differentiate the melanocytic nature of the tumor. Results. The cytological diagnosis of melanoma was established in all patients, including two urgent cytological tests on the operating table. In 80 % of melanomas, a positive expression of HMB 45 (melanocytic differentiation marker) and cocktail Melan (a melanoma-associated marker) were observed, which confirmed the melanocytic nature of the tumor. A weak reaction to S100 (neuronal differentiation marker) was noted. In all cases, a pronounced reaction to vimentin was observed, which manifested itself as a brown coloration of the cytoplasm. When studying the expression of ER and PR, a negative result was obtained; none of the studied samples displayed a quantitatively positive reaction. Conclusions. In our investigation, based on UM samples study, 22 patients had no positive expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors in the tumor tissue, which correlates with literary data. For citation: Saakyan S.V., Zhiltsova M.G., Valskiy V.V., Tsygankov A.Yu. Estrogen and progesterone receptors expression in uveal melanoma tumor cells. Russian ophthalmological journal. 2018; 11 (1): 17-23. doi: 10.21516/2072-0076-2018-11-1-17-23 (In Russian).