PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to detect circulating malignant cells (CMCs) in oversea-shipped blood samples of patients with uveal melanoma diagnosed in Brazil. METHODOS: Melan-A and tyrosinase were the two markers used for the detection of CMCs, using reverse transcriptase nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nested-PCR) in 6 patients with uveal melanoma. The expression of beta-actin and GAPDH were used to assess the quality of the material. RESULTS: Five patients (83.33%) tested positive for the presence of CMCs. The RT-nested-PCR was positive for melan-A in 4 patients (66.7%) and positive for tyrosinase in 4 (66.7%) of the 6 patients. Three (50%) patients were positive for both markers. One (16.7%) patient was negative for both markers. All negative controls were negative. CONCLUSION: The quality of the blood samples shipped overseas, from patients with uveal melanoma, was preserved. The detection of CMCs using RT-nested-PCR was positive in the majority of the patients.
Melanoma; Choroid neoplasms; Monophenol monooxygenase; Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; Sequence analysis; DNA; Neoplasm circulating cells
