Klin Onkol 1990; 3(4): 119-123.
Summary:
The predominate type of cell which constitutes the bulk of the primary tumour as well as of melanoma metastases is epithelioid. In our 426 tumour samples this type was found in more than in 70 % of cases. In 49 patients 2—6 tumour samples were examined during the course of the disease. It was found that if primary lesion was of epithelioid cell type, metastases are, in majority of cases, epithelioid too. On the contrary if the cell type of the primary was spindle or mixed (epithelioid + + spindle), cell type in metastases in majority of cases changed to epithelioid. The course of the disease was evaluated in 190 stage I melanoma patients (from years 1981—1984). It was found that the early dissemination and/or death due to melanoma was not seen so frequently in patients with spindle cell melanoma as in patients with tumours of other cell types. Majority of spindle cell melanomas, in contrast to melanomas of other cell types, were HLA-DR negative.
