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Studies surveying melanomas associated with melanocytic nevi in Asia are rare. In this study, we examined whether nevus-associated melanomas differ from de novo melanomas in terms of their associations with clinical factors, histologic characteristics, and patient survival in Taiwan. Using data on cancer cases obtained from the Department of Pathology archives and the Cancer Registry of National Taiwan University Hospital, we conducted a retrospective analysis of 103 consecutive melanoma patients who were diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 and received follow-up through November 2016. Approximately 17.5% of the melanomas in question were associated with a nevus. In patients under 65 years of age, non-acral lentiginous melanomas were significantly associated with a higher percentage of nevus-associated melanomas. The superficial spreading subtype, younger patient age, thinner tumor, intermittent solar exposure, and early stage were significant predictors of a melanoma being histologically associated with a nevus. The appearance of a nevus associated with a melanoma predicted better recurrence-free survival compared with de novo melanomas. Although acral lentiginous melanomas (70.9%) constituted the most common histologic subtype, only 9.6% of the acral lentiginous melanomas were associated with a nevus. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference between the nevus-associated and de novo acral lentiginous melanomas with regard to clinicopathological factors and survival. In conclusion, nevus-associated melanomas were uncommon among acral lentiginous melanomas. Relatedly, because over half of all melanomas in Asians are acral lentiginous melanomas, Asians are less likely than Caucasians to have nevus-associated melanomas.

Insulin-like growth factor-II mRNA-binding protein 3 (IMP-3) is an RNA-binding protein expressed in multiple cancers, including melanomas. However, the expression of IMP-3 has not been investigated in acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM). This study sought to elucidate its prognostic value in ALMs. IMP-3 expression was studied in 93 patients diagnosed with ALM via immunohistochemistry. Univariate and multivariate analyses for survival were performed, according to clinical and histologic parameters, using the Cox proportional hazard model. Survival curves were graphed using the Kaplan-Meier method. IMP-3 was over-expressed in 70 out of 93 tumors (75.3%). IMP-3 expression correlated with thick and high-stage tumor and predicted poorer overall, melanoma-specific, recurrence-free and distant metastasis-free survivals (P = 0.002, 0.006, 0.008 and 0.012, respectively). Further analysis showed that patients with tumor thickness ≤ 4.0 mm and positive IMP-3 expression had a significantly worse melanoma-specific survival than those without IMP-3 expression (P = 0.048). IMP-3 (hazard ratio 3.67, 95% confidence intervals 1.35-9.97, P = 0.011) was confirmed to be an independent prognostic factor for melanoma-specific survival in multivariate survival analysis. Positive IMP-3 expression was an important prognostic factor for ALMs.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by advanced osteolytic lesions resulting from the activation of osteoclasts (OCs) and inhibition of osteoblasts (OBs). OBs are derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the bone marrow (BM), however the pool and function of BMMSCs in MM patients (MM-BMMSCs) are reduced by myeloma cells (MCs) and cytokines secreted from MCs and related anti-MM treatment. Such reduction in MM-BMMSCs currently cannot be restored by any means. Recently, genetic aberrations of MM-BMMSCs have been noted, which further impaired their differentiation toward OBs. We hypothesize that the MSCs derived from adipose tissue (ADMSCs) can be used as alternative MSC sources to enhance the pool and function of OBs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the osteogenesis ability of paired ADMSCs and BMMSCs in MM patients who had completed intensive therapy. Fifteen MM patients who had received bortezomib-based induction and autologous transplantation were enrolled. At the third month after the transplant, the paired ADMSCs and BMMSCs were obtained and cultured. Compared with the BMMSCs, the ADMSCs exhibited a significantly higher expansion capacity (100% vs 13%, respectively; P = .001) and shorter doubling time (28 hours vs 115 hours, respectively; P = .019). After inducing osteogenic differentiation, although the ALP activity did not differ between the ADMSCs and BMMSCs (0.78 U/µg vs 0.74±0.14 U/µg, respectively; P = .834), the ADMSCs still exhibited higher calcium mineralization, which was determined using Alizarin red S (1029 nmole vs 341 nmole, respectively; P = .001) and von Kossa staining (2.6 E+05 µm2 vs 5 E+04 µm2, respectively; P = .042), than the BMMSCs did. Our results suggested that ADMSCs are a feasible MSC source for enhancing the pool and function of OBs in MM patients who have received intensive therapy.