Effects of Heat Treatment in Vitro and in Vivo on Human Melanoma Xenografts

Abstract

In the present paper inactivation of human melanoma xenografts will be discussed. Five different human melanomas, propagated in athymic mice, were used as a test system. The tumors were derived from metastases of patients at The Norwegian Radium Hospital and transplanted directly to nude mice without adaptation to in vitro culture conditions. The tumors were grown serially in nude mice by implanting small tumor fragments into the flanks of recipient mice. When the present work was carried out, the tumors had been grown for at least 20 passages in nude mice. The tumors used in hyperthermia experiments were implanted in the legs of the mice and had grown to a diameter of 8-12 mm when the experiments were carried out. Light microscopic and electron microscopic examination of the xenografts showed that they very nearly retained the morphology of the parent tumors.

Financial support from The Norwegian Cancer Society, The Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities, and The Nansen Scientific Fund is gratefully acknowledged.