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Uveal melanoma is the most frequent intraocular tumor, with a high mortality rate due to metastases, especially liver metastases. Glycosylation represents an enzymatic process of addition of molecules of saccharides to other saccharides, lipids or proteins. Aberrant glycosylation is considered a key feature in malignant transformation and cancer progression. In uveal melanoma, the most common glycosylation changes are considered sialylation, fucosylation, and N- and I-glycan branching. The goal of this study is to identify sialic acid as a tumoral marker and the correlation with survival rate in uveal malign melanoma. The determination of sialic acid is used in other cancers to monitor the evolution of the disease and the survival rate. Sialic acid specificity is relatively low, because high levels of sialic acid-rich glycoproteins are encountered in inflammatory diseases [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Uveal melanoma (UM) is a common malignant intraocular tumor that presents with significant genetic differences to cutaneous melanoma and has a high genetic burden in terms of prognosis. (2) Methods: A systematic literature search of several repositories on uveal melanoma diagnosis, prognosis, molecular analysis, and treatment was conducted. (3) Results: Recent genetic understanding of oncogene-initiation mutations in GNAQ, GNA11, PLCB4, and CYSLTR2 and secondary progression drivers of BAP1 inactivation and SF3B1 and EIF1AX mutations offers an appealing explanation to the high prognostic impact of adding genetic profiling to clinical UM classification. Genetic information could help better explain peculiarities in uveal melanoma, such as the low long-term survival despite effective primary tumor treatment, the overwhelming propensity to metastasize to the liver, and possibly therapeutic behaviors. (4) Conclusions: Understanding of uveal melanoma has improved step-by-step from histopathology to clinical classification to more recent genetic understanding of oncogenic initiation and progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Uveal malignant melanoma is the most common adult eye cancer and presents metabolic reprogramming that affects the tumoral microenvironment by altering the redox balance and producing oncometabolites. (2) Methods: The study prospectively evaluated patients undergoing enucleation surgery or stereotactic radiotherapy for uveal melanoma by following systemic oxidative-stress redox markers serum lipid peroxides, total albumin groups and total antioxidant levels (3) Results: Serum antioxidants and lipid peroxides were elevated from pre-treatment to longer-term follow-up. Antioxidants inversely correlated to lipid peroxides: higher in stereotactic radiosurgery patients pre/6/12/18 months post-treatment (p = 0.001–0.049) versus higher lipid peroxides in enucleation surgery patients pre/after/6 months post-treatment (p = 0.004–0.010). An increased variance in serum antioxidants was observed for enucleation surgery patients (p < 0.001), however enucleation did not increase mean serum antioxidants or albumin thiols; only lipid peroxides were increased post-enucleation (p < 0.001) and at 6-month follow-up (p = 0.029). Mean albumin thiols were increased for 18- and 24-month follow-ups (p = 0.017–0.022). Males who had enucleation surgery presented higher variance in serum determinations and overall higher lipid peroxides values pre/post-treatment and at the 18-month follow-up. (4) Conclusions: Initial oxidative stress-inducing events of surgical enucleation or stereotactic radiotherapy for uveal melanoma are followed by a longer-term inflammatory cascade gradually subsiding at later follow-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malignant melanoma, although relatively uncommon compared to other skin cancers, is responsible for most fatalities from skin cancer. Although this disease does not necessarily impress by incidence, it makes special medical problems for both affected patients and clinicians who have to deal with a disease with an often dramatic evolution for which until now they didn’t have sufficient effective therapeutic resources. Uveal melanoma is the most common adult eye cancer, with an incidence 10-20 times lower than that of cutaneous melanoma and with a peak incidence around the age of 50-60 years old. The causes of its onset are incompletely elucidated so far. This article aims at presenting in a succession dictated by the steps that the medical team (ophthalmologist, oncologist, pathologist etc.) goes through from diagnosis to the most innovative treatment, along with the latest data related to uveal melanoma. Thus, the incidence data, the risk factors, the screening and the clinical aspects associated with the malignant transformations in this location are presented. The article also presents the latest protocols on clinical and paraclinical investigations, as well as recent data from the literature on the latest and most effective therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]