Prognostic significance of nuclear receptor coactivator-3 overexpression in primary cutaneous melanoma

Purpose To assess the prognostic significance of nuclear receptor coactivator-3 (NCOA3) overexpression in cutaneous melanoma. Patients and Methods NCOA3 expression was assessed using immunohistochemical analysis of a melanoma tissue microarray (TMA) containing primary melanomas from 343 patients with defined histology and follow-up. The impact of the presence or absence of various prognostic factors on relapse-free survival (RFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) of melanoma patients was assessed using Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis. The impact of presence or absence of various factors on sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastasis was assessed using logistic regression analysis. Results Increasing degree of NCOA3 expression was significantly predictive of SLN metastasis (P =.013) and the mean number of SLN metastases (P =.031). Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a significant association between NCOA3 overexpression and reduced RFS (P =.021) and DSS (P =.030). Logistic regression analysis revealed increasing degree of NCOA3 expression to be an independent predictor of SLN status (P =.017). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed the independent impact of NCOA3 expression on RFS (P =.0095) and DSS (P =.021). NCOA3 was the most powerful factor predicting DSS, outperforming tumor thickness and ulceration. Conclusion These results identify NCOA3 as a novel, independent marker of melanoma outcome, with a significant impact on SLN metastasis, RFS, and DSS.