The biology of haematogenous metastasis in human uveal malignant melanoma.

Using data on 4726 cases of uveal melanoma collected by the Registry, of Ophthalmic Pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, my co-workers and I have been studying the biology of haematogenous metastasis. We have developed methods for evaluating separately the relationships between prognostic factors and cure-rate and median survival time for uncured patients. We have discovered that size of the tumour and size of the largest nucleoli in the cells of the uveal melanomas related equally to cure-rate and median survival time. The presence of Callender's epitheloid-type cells in the tumour and increased patient age had little effect on cure-rate but dramatically reduced the median survival time.