Purpose
To explore a possible association between presence of asteroid hyalosis (AH) and uveal melanoma in human and animal subjects.
Methods
The histopathologic slides of enucleated melanoma eyes in the collection of the eye pathology laboratory of University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health were reviewed for the presence of AH. The histopathologic data of the Comparative Ocular Pathology Laboratory of Wisconsin (COPLOW) were also reviewed for incidence of AH in canine eyes with the diagnosis of uveal melanoma. For human control group, the incidence of AH in patients seen at the University of Wisconsin Eye clinic was established based on the records provided to us by the retina service. The control group for the dog eyes consisted of those enucleated for a common non-neoplastic eye disease (goniodysgenesis). Then the association of AH with uveal melanoma in human and dogs was evaluated.
Results
AH was found in 12 out of 1759 human eyes (0.7%) with uveal melanoma (Figure 1). Forty three out of 5218 patients (0.82%) seen at the eye clinic were shown to have AH. The prevalence of asteroid hyalosis in human melanoma eyes was comparable with those of age-matched patients seen at the eye clinic (control group). The rate of AH in dogs with the diagnosis of uveal melanoma was 6.2% (46 out of 746 eyes) while it was 1.9% (45 out of 2309 eyes) in the control group (eyes with goniodysgenesis).
Conclusions
Although we observed a three-fold increase in the rate of AH in melanoma eyes in dogs compared to the control, no similar association was found between AH and uveal melanoma in humans.