Cytokines and growth factors expressed by human cutaneous melanoma.

Cytokines and growth factors have biologic effects that could stimulate tumor growth, invasion and angiogenesis. The incidence of 24 factors was investigated in 25 cultured human melanoma cell lines and in 62 fixed tissues at different stages of the disease. Over 80% of the human melanoma cell lines expressed TGF-β, IL-8, IL-6, VEGF, PDGF-AA and OPN.

Biology of human cutaneous melanoma.

A review of the natural behavior of cutaneous melanoma, clinical and pathological factors, prognostic indicators, some basic research and the present and possible futuristic strategies in the management of this disease are presented. While surgery remains to be the most effective therapeutic approach in the management of early primary lesions, there is no standard adjuvant therapy after surgical resection, or for metastatic disease.

Perioperative adjuvant biotherapy in high-risk resected cutaneous melanoma: the results of 5 years of follow-up.

A feasibility study was conducted to establish the safety and, to some extent, the effectiveness of a new approach of perioperative adjuvant biotherapy in patients with resected cutaneous melanoma. The candidates for this study included patients with primary cutaneous melanoma greater than 1 mm deep, those with resectable regional lymph node (LN) metastases and patients with resectable distant metastases. Interleukin-2 was administered 1 week before definitive surgery as 22 million IU, and again 1 week after the surgery.

Dendritic cell counts in the peripheral blood of healthy adults.

The normal range for adult blood dendritic cells (DC) has not been established. Blood DC counts were assayed directly from blood for 16 female and 11 male healthy adults with an age range of 22-60 years old (median, 46 years). DC were defined as lineage 1-negative/dim, CD34-negative/dim, and HLA-DR-positive within the total peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) population.