Interrelationship between histopathologic characteristics of melanoma and estrogen receptor status

To evaluate whether the increase in disease-free survival and survival previously reported for women with melanomas with estrogen receptors (ER) was a reflection of the histopathology of the primary melanoma, the interrelationship of histopathologic characteristics of 143 patients with such tumors was examined. The ER was assayed in the primary tumor from 44 patients and in 99 metastatic deposits from the other patients. Tumor thickness, level of invasion, prognostic index, mitoses/mm2, ulceration, vascular invasion, necrosis, histologic grade, preexisting nevus, and predominant malignant cell type were examined. There was no relationship between ER presence and any histopathologic characteristic examined, irrespective of the tumor source (primary or metastatic). Examination of histopathologic characteristics as a function of sex and receptor status showed a slight but insignificant predominance of more well-differentiated, thinner tumors in women whose lesions were positive for the ER. These results suggest that the increased disease-free survival in patients with ER-positive lesions is not attributable to the pathologic characteristics of the primary tumor examined during this study.