CD10 protein expression in tumor and stromal cells of malignant melanoma is associated with tumor progression.

CD10 antigen is a 100-kDa-cell surface zinc metalloendopeptidase expressed in a variety of normal and neoplastic lymphoid and nonlymphoid tissues including melanomas. It was recently shown that metastatic melanomas express more CD10 than primary tumors. We evaluated CD10 expression in tumor and stromal cells in 70 biopsies with primary and 28 with metastatic malignant melanomas. Ki-67, Bcl-2, and Bax were also examined to investigate whether CD10 expression is associated with tumor proliferation index or factors of apoptosis. Formalin-fixed/paraffin-embedded tissues were studied by immunohistochemistry. More advanced primary tumors had higher CD10 expression in the tumor cells (r = 0.27, P = 0.03 for Clark levels and r = 0.29, P = 0.02 for Breslow) and higher Ki-67 proliferation fraction (r = 0.32, P = 0.007 for Clark levels and r = 0.32, P = 0.001 for Breslow). Similarly, CD10 expression in the intratumoral stromal cells was also higher in primary tumors with higher Clark level (P = 0.04, linear-by-linear association) and tumor thickness according to Breslow (r = 0.33, P = 0.01). The presence of CD10+ peritumoral stromal cell cuffs was also positively associated with tumor thickness according to Breslow (r = 0.27, P = 0.05). Also, expression of CD10 and Ki-67 were significantly higher in metastatic than in primary tumors (P = 0.01 and 0.02 respectively), but Bcl-2 expression was higher in primary melanomas (P = 0.02). We conclude that CD10 expression in malignant melanoma is associated with tumor progression.