Uveal melanoma is the most frequent intraocular cancer and the second most common form of melanoma. It metastasizes in half of the patients and the prognostic is poor. Although ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a proven risk factor for skin melanoma, the role of UV light in the etiology of uveal melanoma is still contradictory. We have compared epidemiological and genetic evidences of the potential role of UV radiation in uveal melanoma with data on cutaneous melanoma. Even though frequently mutated genes in skin melanoma (e.g. BRAF) differ from those found in uveal melanoma (i.e. GNAQ, GNA11), their mutation pattern bears strong similarities. Furthermore, we provide new results showing that RAC1, a gene recently found harboring UV-hallmark mutation in skin melanoma, is also mutated in uveal melanoma. This article aims to review the work done in the last decades to understand the etiology of uveal melanoma and discuss new avenues, which shed some light on the potential role of UV exposure in uveal melanoma.
© 2013 The American Society of Photobiology.