Abstract
Purpose: :
Uveal melanoma is the most common form of adult onset primary malignant intraocular tumor. Conventional cytogenetic and comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) assays on enucleated tumors have revealed that monosomy for chromosome 3 predicts significantly reduced disease free survival.
Methods: :
In this project, whole genome SNP based assay (WGSA) on a series of 100 fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) samples of small uveal melanoma and the corresponding matched blood samples using Affymetrix 50K SNP-CHIPs was performed.
Results: :
The results of WGSA based copy number analysis confirmed previous observation and identified 3p, 3q, 1q, 6q, 8p and 8q, as the most significant regions of loss /amplification. Two novel regions on chromosome 4p and 9p were identified that critically correlated to clinical features.We next investigated the possibility of identifying SNP based biomarkers that are associated with tumors with bad prognosis. For this we focused our attention on SNPs present in metastasis associated genes. Preliminary analysis indicated presence of a subset of SNPs that can classify individuals with a bad prognosis.
Keywords: uvea • melanoma • gene microarray