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Increased CCL17 serum levels are associated with improved survival in advanced melanoma

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Abstract

Background

Prognostic factors of melanoma patients with distant metastases remain poorly established. This study aimed to compare the prognostic impact of putative serum biomarkers, namely S100B, YKL-40 or CCL17, in stage IV melanoma patients.

Patients and methods

Serum concentrations were analyzed by ELISA. Disease-specific survival of 80 patients according to S100B, YKL-40 or CCL17 and clinical factors were calculated by univariate Kaplan–Meier survival and multivariate analysis.

Results

Low serum levels of S100B, high concentrations of CCL17 and female gender correlated with improved survival. A trend for favorable prognosis was observed for the M categories M1a/b versus M1c according to the AJCC classification. No correlation with survival was evident for YKL-40 serum levels and age. In multivariate analysis, S100B (HR 2.1; p = 0.005) and CCL17 (HR 1.8; p = 0.029) had independent prognostic impact. Patients with a combination of normal S100B and high CCL17 had a high chance for long-term survival, which was 43 % after 3 years.

Conclusion

Serum levels of CCL17 and S100B represent independent prognostic markers for melanoma patients with distant metastases. These biomarkers were more powerful than the M category according to the AJCC classification to indicate overall survival. CCL17 represents a promising biomarker upon immune checkpoint blockade in melanoma.

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Abbreviations

AJCC:

American Joint Committee on Cancer

CCL17:

Chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 17

CCR4:

C–C chemokine receptor type 4

CMMR:

Central Malignant Melanoma Registry

IQR:

Inter-quartile range

Tregs:

Regulatory T cells

LDH:

Lactate dehydrogenase

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the collaborative research center (CRC/SFB) 685 of the German Research Foundation (DFG) to Dominik Hartl.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that no conflict of interest exists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Benjamin Weide

  2. Department of Dermatology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Benjamin Weide, Andrea Forschner, Ulrike Leiter, Thomas K. Eigentler & Claus Garbe

  3. Department of Pediatrics I, University of Tübingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Strasse 1, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Nicolas Allgaier, Andreas Hector & Dominik Hartl

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  1. Benjamin Weide
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  2. Nicolas Allgaier
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  3. Andreas Hector
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  4. Andrea Forschner
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  7. Claus Garbe
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  8. Dominik Hartl
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Correspondence to Dominik Hartl.

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Weide, B., Allgaier, N., Hector, A. et al. Increased CCL17 serum levels are associated with improved survival in advanced melanoma. Cancer Immunol Immunother 64, 1075–1082 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-015-1714-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-015-1714-4

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