Abstract
Chemotherapy can increase the pigment production of human malignant melanomas when grown as xenografts in athymic nude mice. Of five largely amelanotic human melanomas treated with a phenyltriazene (CB 10–286) three showed some response in terms of growth rate. These three tumours also exhibited an increase in melanin production when examined histologically. Homogenates of these tumours which had not been subjected to chemotherapy showed a marked inhibition of the conversion of DOPA to melanin. In one case there was an increase in the rate of melanin production when the tumour had been subjected to chemotherapy. Using HPLC to study the conversion of 5,6-dihydroxyindole to melanin it was found that the inhibition could occur at this stage of the metabolic pathway and that a non-responding tumour had a conversion factor that increased the rate of melanin production from 5,6-dihydroxyindole.
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© 1984 Martinus Nijhoff Publishing, Boston
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Sparrow, S., Billington, S., Rickard, J. (1984). Melanogenesis in Human Malignant Melanoma Xenografts. In: Harrap, K.R., Davis, W., Calvert, A.H. (eds) Cancer Chemotherapy and Selective Drug Development. Developments in Oncology, vol 23. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3837-6_116
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3837-6_116
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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