CD133 and ABCB5 as stem cell markers on sentinel lymph node from melanoma patients

CD133 is one of most studied marker of stemness expressed by melanoma cells. ABCB5 is specifically expressed on CD133þ tumor stem cell phenotype indicating that ABCB5þ/CD133þ cells may represent the melanoma stem cells fraction. Nevertheless, there is disagreement concerning the constant presence of CD133þ cells in primary and metastatic melanomas.In this preliminary study we correlated the expression of CD133 and ABCB5 by RT-PCR assay in 65 SLN of melanoma patients with progression of disease. We failed to find a correlation, in this subset of patients, between clinical characteristics, expression of CD133/ ABCB5 and prognosis, even with a median follow- up time of 74 months. It’s conceivable that, enlarging the patient’s cohort and enrolling a more homogeneous group of patients, these two markers could be further correlated to the outcome of disease and give more useful information on biological characteristics of SLN