Extracellular cAMP-dependent protein kinase (ECPKA) in melanoma.

Melanoma is one of the fastest rising malignancies in the United States. When detected early, primary melanomas are curable through surgery. However, despite significant improvements in diagnosis and surgical, local and systemic therapy, mortality rate in metastatic melanoma remains high. Furthermore, genetic alterations associated with the development and stepwise progression of melanoma, are still unclear. Previous reports show that the catalytic kinase subunit of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase is secreted by tumor cells and can be detected in the serum of cancer patients. We examine in this report the clinical significance of this secreted C subunit kinase termed extracellular protein kinase (ECPKA) in melanoma patients. Our results showed the presence of ECPKA activity in the serum of melanoma patients and correlate with the appearance and size of the tumor. Most importantly, surgical removal of melanoma causes a precipitous decrease in ECPKA activity in the sera of patients, suggesting that ECPKA may be a novel predictive marker in melanoma.