PRAME EXPRESSION AS AN AID FOR DIAGNOSIS AND EVALUATION OF HISTOLOGICAL MARGIN IN MELANOMA IN XERODERMA PIGMENTOSUM

• Grant number: 22/09987-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2022
• End date: August 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Letícia Cintra
• Grantee: Esther Hae Ji Kim
• Host Institution: Hospital de Clínicas (HC). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a genodermatosis characterized by marked photosensitivity, dyschromia and high risk of skin cancer. From a clinical point of view, the diagnosis of melanoma in XP patients can be very difficult, because they have many lentigines and melanoses. Also, on histology, differentiating cases of non-malignant melanocytic proliferation from melanoma can be an arduous task, since, in XP, dysplasia of melanocytes occurs in the epidermis. PRAME (Preferentially expressed Antigen in MElanoma) is an antigen that has been highlighted as an aid in differentiating between malignant melanocytic proliferation (nuclear immunostaining) and benign (negative result). PRAME shows overexpression/diffuse nuclear immunoreactivity in primary and metastatic melanomas. Thus, the study of PRAME expression could be a useful tool for the histopathological study of skin samples from patients with XP (particularly in forms of the disease compatible with longer survival) with melanocytic lesions, in which it is necessary not only to define the lesion biological nature, but also the sufficiency of the margins. The aim of this study is to study the value of anti-PRAME antibody expression, in skin samples from patients with XP, as an auxiliary tool in the differential diagnosis between melanoma and non-melanoma atypical melanocytic proliferation.