Early diagnosis and successful treatment of paraneoplastic melanocytic proliferation.

Background: Paraneoplastic melanocytic proliferation (bilateral diffuse uveal melanocytic proliferation, BDUMP) is a rare but devastating disease that causes progressive visual loss in patients who usually have an occult malignancy. Visual loss occurs as a result of paraneoplastic changes in the uveal tissue.

Methods: In a masked fashion, the serum of two patients with BDUMP was evaluated for the presence of cultured melanocyte elongation and proliferation (CMEP) factor using cultured human melanocytes.