[Histonet] Mart-1/Melan-A as a stain for melanoma sentinel nodes

[Dawson, Glen]

Tammy,

I use a cocktail of Mart-1, Melan-A & Tyrosinase that we named the MCW (Medical College of Wisconsin) Melanoma Cocktail.  If you google it you should find our paper online and I do believe that my Pathologist addresses some Mast cell staining issues in it.  The triple antibody is excellent as a screener as it covers more epitopes than any one of the three does individually.  Suggested staining methods are in the paper as well.

Best of Luck,
Glen Dawson
IHC Manager
Milwaukee, WI

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu]On Behalf Of Barnhart,
Tammy
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:51 AM
To: Histonet (E-mail)
Subject: [Histonet] Mart-1/Melan-A as a stain for melanoma sentinel
nodes


We are having some debate about which marker to use for our melanoma
sentinel node screens.  We have been using Mart-1, but recently had a case
where we think mast cells were stained.  We can find no literature that
indicates that Mart-1 will stain mast cells.  We use Lab Vision's
Mart-1/Melan-a AB-3 (clone M27C10+M2-9e3).  We ran a Mast Cell tryptase to
see what stained, and all the cells that stained with the Mart-1 stained
plus a bunch of others.  So if the Mart-1 is staining mast cells, it is only
staining a subset of them.  We really think that these are mast cells and
not melanoma, but would like to see some literature to support this.  So two
questions: 1) What are people using as a screening antibody and 2) Does
anyone have a reference that indicates that this antibody will stain mast
cells.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Tammy Barnhart, BS, HTL(ASCP)
Anatomic Pathology Supervisor
St. Alexius Medical Center
Bismarck, ND

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