Intratumoral multinucleated giant cells are not a prognostic pathologic feature in cutaneous melanoma

Background Histopathologic diagnostic features such as tumor thickness, ulceration, mitoses, microsatellitosis and nodal metastases are principal pathologic staging components of cutaneous melanomas. We chose to focus on evaluating the presence of multinucleated giant cells in microscopic sections a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cutaneous pathology 2016-10, Vol.43 (10), p.821-829
Main Authors: Srisuttiyakorn, Chutika, Bulloch, Kaleigh, Rodic, Nemanja, Bosenberg, Marcus, Ariyan, Stephen, Narayan, Deepak, Gould Rothberg, Bonnie E., Galan, Anjela
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
clinicopathologic parameters
Dermis
Female
Genotype & phenotype
Giant cells
Giant Cells - pathology
Head and neck
Head and Neck Neoplasms - pathology
Humans
Male
Melanoma
Melanoma - pathology
Metastases
Middle Aged
Mitosis
multinucleated giant cells
pathologic staging
Phenotypes
Retrospective Studies
retrospective study
Skin Neoplasms - pathology
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Summary:Background Histopathologic diagnostic features such as tumor thickness, ulceration, mitoses, microsatellitosis and nodal metastases are principal pathologic staging components of cutaneous melanomas. We chose to focus on evaluating the presence of multinucleated giant cells in microscopic sections as a putative novel prognosticating diagnostic feature of melanoma. Methods We assembled a retrospective cohort comprised of 562 cases of melanoma. We annotated each case for a multitude of known clinicopathologic variables to allow robust statistical evaluation of our cohort. Results Only 37 cases (6.6%) exhibited the multinucleated giant cells phenotype. Virtually all multinucleated giant cells were localized in the reticular dermis. Of interest, melanomas with multinucleated giant cells were roughly twice more likely to occur on head and neck sites (p = 0.04). Melanomas with multinucleated giant cells phenotype had both comparable melanoma recurrence (p = 0.12) and similar melanoma‐specific mortality when compared with melanomas without multinucleated giant cells phenotype (p = 0.26). Conclusion Despite prior anecdotal reports possibly linking multinucleated giant cells phenotype to more aggressive clinical course, we find that melanomas with multinucleated giant cells phenotype is not associated with shorter survival.
ISSN:0303-6987
1600-0560
DOI:10.1111/cup.12750