Smouldering malignant melanoma and metastatic dormancy: an update and review. 2012

Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
Department of Dermatopathology, University Hospital of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.

The fund of knowledge regarding the versatility of presentation of MM metastases is still quite incomplete. The recent literature pertaining to the current understanding of the mechanisms underlying two special features of MM metastasis is reviewed. On the one hand, a long disease-free interval (MM dormancy) may occur before the surge of overt metastases. On the other hand, the so-called MM smouldering phenomenon refers to the condition where regional metastases wax and wane for long periods of time on restricted skin regions. It is important to emphasize that local micrometastases often predict sentinel lymph node involvement but may not reflect progression of the primary MM to full-blown visceral metastatic competence. It is likely that a combination of factors impacts the versatile MM metastasic progression. Among the main factors, one has to mention the phenotypic heterogeneity and variability in the phenotype of MM cells, the presence of MM stem cells and MM cells engaged in an amplification proliferation pool, as well as the host immune response, and possibly the induction of a particular stromal structure and vascularity.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
February 2010, Pigment cell & melanoma research,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
July 1980, Clinics in plastic surgery,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
January 1999, Plastic surgical nursing : official journal of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgical Nurses,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
January 1991, Seminars in surgical oncology,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
May 2011, Expert review of anticancer therapy,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
March 2000, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
January 2014, Advances in experimental medicine and biology,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
June 1999, Puerto Rico health sciences journal,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
January 1983, The Western journal of medicine,
Gérald E Piérard, and Claudine Piérard-Franchimont, and Marie-Annick Reginster, and Pascale Quatresooz
June 2014, Expert review of ophthalmology,
Copied contents to your clipboard!