Intraocular tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis a novel prognostic factor for ciliary body melanomas with extraocular extension?

Purpose: To evaluate whether intraocular tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis contributes to prognosis of ciliary body melanomas with extraocular extension and to study its association with other tumor characteristics.

Design: Nonrandomized, retrospective case series.

Participants: Twenty consecutive patients enucleated for a malignant melanoma of the ciliary body with extraocular extension.

Intraocular lymphangiogenesis in malignant melanomas of the ciliary body with extraocular extension.

Purpose: To analyze whether lymphatic vessels can invade the normally alymphatic eye (lymphangiogenesis) in patients with malignant melanoma of the ciliary body with extraocular extension and to correlate these findings with metastasis-free survival.

Methods: Ten enucleated globes with the histopathologically and immunohistochemically (S-100, HMB-45, PNL-2, and Melan-A) confirmed diagnosis of malignant melanoma of the ciliary body with extraocular extension were matched with 10 globes with a ciliary body melanoma without extraocular extension regarding tumor size, cell type, melanin content, mitotic count, vascular networks, and patients' age. In all 20 cases, immunohistochemistry was performed to identify lymphatic vessels by using LYVE-1 and podoplanin as specific markers for lymphatic vascular endothelium.