Germinal centre hyperplasia: an unfavourable immune response in recurrent malignant melanoma

A quantitative immunomorphological analysis of actively responding B-(germinal centre) and T-lymphocyte (paracortical) areas in 187 patients with malignant melanoma recurrent in the regional lymph nodes has been made. The results show that tumour involved nodes have significantly increased germinal centre and decreased paracortical response in comparison with uninvolved lymph nodes. Patients treated with surgery alone whose uninvolved nodes had hyperplastic (defined as exceeding the median) germinal centre areas, had significantly shorter survival than those without germinal centre hyperplasia. No association was found between lymph node immunomorphology and survival in BCG treated patients.