Clinical and cytogenetic characteristics of choroidal melanoma in Vietnamese Asians

PURPOSE: To report the clinical and cytogenetic characteristics of choroidal melanoma in Vietnamese Asians. METHODS: In three Vietnamese Asians with choroidal melanoma, transscleral fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) was performed immediately before Iodine-125 brachytherapy. Biopsy was examined for cytopathology, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for the centromere of chromosome 3, and analyzed by 250K whole genome Mapping Array and U133 plus 2.0 Expression Array. RESULTS: Three Vietnamese Asian men (50, 59, and 30 years of age) with clinical diagnosis of choroidal melanoma and no evidence of metastasis had FNAB immediately before Iodine-125 brachytherapy. Cytopathology showed heavily pigmented cells suggestive of or consistent with melanoma. Mapping Array and Expression Array revealed cytogenetic aberrations and gene expression profiles characteristic of choroidal melanoma. One patient (Case 2) with chromosome 3 loss and chromosome 8q gain developed biopsy-proven liver metastasis three years after brachytherapy. One patient (Case 1) with chromosome 6p, 9q and 17q gain and a second patient (Case 3) with 6p, 8q and 9q gains and losses in 6q and 8p have had no evidence of metastasis three years after brachytherapy. CONCLUSIONS: In this series of Vietnamese Asians with heavily pigmented choroidal melanoma, the clinical characteristics, cytogenetic aberrations and gene expression profiles were similar to characteristics in other ethnic/racial groups and the cytogenetic aberration of chromosome 3 loss was associated with the development of liver metastasis.