Although the incidence of melanoma is increasing rapidly, its proportion is relatively low among all the malignant tumors in China, and oncologists commonly pay little attention. The first consultation place for melanoma patients is mainly the department of dermatology. Dermatologists have unique advantages in the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma since they can comprehensively integrate clinical diagnosis, pathological diagnosis, surgical treatment and drug treatment. In recent years, Chinese scholars have made great progress in melanoma research, such as regulation of cell death, epigenetic modification, resistance to targeted drugs, tumor microenvironment and tumor immune regulation. Interferon α-1b, a unique new drug in China, not only can be used for adjuvant treatment of high-risk stage Ⅱ and Ⅲ melanoma, but also shows good efficacy in the treatment of stage Ⅳ melanoma, and adverse reactions to it are far less than those to interferon α-2b. Unlike the White population, the common subtypes of melanoma are acral and mucosal melanomas in the Asian population. The combination of interferon α-1b with programmed death receptor-ligand 1 inhibitor, targeted drugs or angiogenesis inhibitors is bringing hope for patients with stage IV melanoma.

Objective To detect circulating autoantibodies to melanocytes in patients with vitiligo and its relationship to disease activity and subtypes. Methods IgG autoantibodies to melanocyte surface antigens were measured in sera from 334 patients with vitiligo and 50 normal individuals using a live cell enzyme linked immunoabsorbent assay. Results Anti melanocyte IgG antibody was present in 67％ of patients(165/250) with active non segmental vitiligo, 30.3％ of patients(10/33) with inactive non segmental vitiligo, 40.54％ of patients(23/51) with active segmental vitiligo and 21.42％ of patients with inactive segmental vitiligo (3/14). The autoantibody levels were significantly higher in patients with active non segmental vitiligo and active segmental vitiligo than those with inactive disease or normal individuals. Conclusion Autoimmune mechanism may play an important role in both non segmental and segmental vitiligo.

Seventeen cases of malignant melanoma (MM) were observed with transmission electron microscopy in order to clarify the significance of abberant melanosomes in its diagnosis.30 cases of nevus were also studied to serve as control.It was found that aberrant melanosomes were present in 14 cases of MM including 2 cases of amelanotic MM and absent in 2 cases of pigmented MM and one case of amelanotic MM.In addition,aberrant melanosomes were found in 4 cases of congenital nevus.The findings suggest that the significance of aberrant melanosomes in the diagnosis of MM has been overemphasized.It is believed that the diagnosis of MM must be judged comprehensively on all the ultrastructural changes under transmission electron microscope.

There are controversies concerning whether congential small nevus(CSN)is liable to undergo malignant degeneration and whether it should be resected promptly.The signif-icane of CSN in the pathogenesis of malignant melanoma(MM)was assessed with microspec-trophotometric determination of DNA quantity,the detection of the gene product of N-ras,p21 protein,with ABC technique,ultrastructural study of MM tissue with electron microscopy,and analysis of clinical data of MM.The findings were as follows:(1)The DNA content increased sequentially in order of acquired nevus(AN),CSN,congenital giant nevus(CGN)and MM,and the difference was statistically significant among the 4 groups(P

A melanoma is a highly malignant tumor that originates from melanocytes in the skin, mucosa, or tunica pigmentosa. The incidence and mortality rate of cutaneous melanoma are increasing annually. However, the efficacy of traditional therapy is extremely limited because of its low sensitivity and high toxicity. The application of the anti-CTLA-4 antibody and the BRAF inhibitor dramatically improves the overall survival of patients with advanced melanoma. However, their limited benefit ratio and high drug resistance curtail the use of anti-CTLA-4. Since the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 antibodies for ad-vanced melanoma in 2014, a significant survival benefit has been observed in patients with advanced melanoma. This review aims to highlight the applications of the anti-PD-1 antibody (pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and pidilizumab) and the anti-PD-L1 antibody (MP-DL3280A, BMS-936559, and MEDI4736) in the clinical treatment of melanoma by succinctly summarizing the results of recent reports.

Objective To investigate ?-catenin and lymphoid enhancing factor 1 (LEF-1) expression in malignant melanoma. Methods ?-catenin and LEF-1 protein expression was examined using the PowerVisionTM immunohistochemical method in 25 cases of intradermal nevus and 45 cases of malignant melanoma. Results Comparing malignant melanoma with intradermal nevi, there was a significant difference in the expression of ?-catenin (33/45= 73% vs. 9/25 = 36%, respectively; P

Objective To study the expression of double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) in malignant melanoma and ordinary nevi. Methods The expression of PKR and proliferating cell nuclear antigen was examined in 42 cases of malignant melanoma and 25 ordinary nevi by an immunohistochemical method. Results The positive rate of PKR expression was higher in the patients with malignant melanoma than that in the patients with ordinary nevi (P

Objective: To study the inhibition of antisense TRP1 on cell growth of malignant melanoma(MM) and explore a new way for therapy of melanoma. Methods: Antisense TRP-1 recombinant vector was constructed and transfected into MM cells. According to the results of MTT, cell growth curves were drawn and then clonogenic assay was performed in vitro. At last, tumorigenesis assay was undertaken in nude mice in vivo. Results: Cell proliferations of TRP-1 transfected MM cells were inhibited compared with the control cells. The results of clonogenic assay displayed the difference of clonogenic percentage between TRP-1 transfected MM cells (52% , P

Objective To investigate melanocyte membrane antigen associated with vitiligo,for further purification and cloning.Methods Sera from patients with vitiligo were screened by using a live cell enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay,98strongly positive sera were obtrained.Melanocyte antigens were immunoblotted after splitting of cultured normal human melanocytes.Thirty strong positive vitiligo sera were detected.Results There were positive bands in all screened sera as shown by immunoblotting.Whereas,positive band was seen in only one normal human sera.The antibody bound many antigens with different molecular weights(150kd,90kd,75kd,50kd,40~45kd).Positive rates for individual antigens were70%,60%,83%,16%and23%,respectively.Conclusions Antibody directed to melanocyte membrane antigens of melanocytes are present in the sera of patients with vitiligo.The molecular weights of the antigens are mainly150kd,90kd and75kd,the antigens with small molecules discovered previously maybe the degradation products of big molecules.

Objective To probe into the gene therapy of psoriasis using antisense oligonucleotides to attenuate the expression of K14 gene and protein in keratinocytes and evaluate the inhibitory effects of liposome conjugated antisense oligonucleotides on the proliferation of keratinocytes. Methods The antisense, sense and mismatched oligonucleotides for K14 gene were synthesized and conjugated with lipofectin respectively. Finally they were subsequently transfected into cultured keratinocytes in vitro. The expression of K14 gene was tested by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The expression of K14 protein was measured by immunohistochemistry. The variation of cell growth cycle was detected by flow cytometry. Results The expression of K14 gene and protein was markedly decreased in keratinocytes treated with K14 antisense oligonucleotides. The cell growth cycle was inhibited effectively by antisense oligonucleotides with lipofection, but not by sense and mismatched oligonucleotides. Conclusions Antisense oligonucleotides conjugated with lipofectin might be a hopeful method to inhibit the proliferation of keratinocytes by inhibiting the expression of K14 mRNA and protein.