A low NM23.H1 gene expression identifies human melanomas of higher malignancy.

The NM23 gene has been proposed as a metastasis-suppressor gene, and its use has been suggested as prognostic factor. NM23 was identified in a system of murine melanoma cell lines, in which an inverse relationship was found between NM23 expression and metastatic ability. In a human malignant melanoma study NM23 expression was found to be significantly lower in metastases that developed less than 24 months after diagnosis of the primary tumours. The present paper studies the expression of the NM23.H1 gene in cell lines which derive from primary or metastatic human malignant melanomas in relation to staging, infiltration degree, lymphocytic infiltration, cell morphology, cell pigmentation, karyotype, and disease-free survival. The level of mRNA expression of the NM23 gene is significantly lower in cell lines that derive from more infiltrating primary melanomas than in cell lines obtained from less infiltrating tumours. Moreover, cell lines derived from tumours of patients with a disease-free survival of more than 24 months (24-58 months) express the NM23 gene at higher levels than cell lines obtained from melanomas of patients with a disease-free survival of less than 24 months (6-15 months).