MOLECULAR MARKERS OF UVEAL MELANOMA
The literature review is dedicated to the molecular aspects of uveal melanoma. Although uveal melanoma is a rare pathology, it is characterized by poor prognosis associated with a high probability of tumor progression. According to current conceptions, the availability of clinical and pathomorphological criteria is insufficient for making a correct differential diagnosis of the disease, stratification of metastatic disease risk, evaluation of the disease prognosis and the tumor response to therapy. The molecular genetic study is a valuable supplement to the current techniques. A number of molecular-biological features are characteristic for uveal melanoma, which could be used as diagnostic criteria of this tumor, as well as for evaluation of its metastatic potential. The review presents the current notion of the benefits and limitations in application of cytogenetic markers, gene expression profiling and driver mutations as prognostic factors of uveal melanoma. Nevertheless, despite the considerable number of articles, there is no ambiguity in understanding molecular mechanisms of uveal melanoma carcinogenesis and especially in the disease progression. Today there are neither reliable criteria for predicting the neoplastic process nor the algorithm for the early detection of metastatasis, which makes further research a high-priority task.