Adjuvant therapy with the pineal hormone melatonin in patients with lymph node relapse due to malignant melanoma

Abstract

Several experimental studies have shown that melatonin has an oncostatic action, either by stimulating host antitumor immune defenses or by directly inhibiting the growth of some cancer histotypes, including melanoma. Our previous clinical studies demonstrated that melatonin may induce stabilization of the disease in untreatable metastatic solid tumor patients, and these results have been confirmed by others, at least in patients with metastatic melanoma. On the contrary, at present there are no data related to the possible efficacy of melatonin as an adjuvant endocrine therapy. This study was performed to investigate the impact of melatonin therapy on the disease-free survival (DFS) in melanoma patients surgically treated for regional node recurrence. The study included 30 node-relapsed melanoma patients, who were randomized to receive no treatment or adjuvant therapy of melatonin (20 mg/day orally in the evening) every day until disease progression. After a median follow up of 31 months, the percent of DFS was significantly higher in melatonin-treated individuals than in controls. The DFS curve was also significantly longer in melatonin group than in controls. No melatonin-related toxicity was observed. This preliminary study suggests that an adjuvant endocrine therapy with melatonin may be effective in preventing disease progression in node-relapsed melanoma patients.

Randomized Phase II Trial of High-Dose Melatonin and Radiation Therapy for RPA Class 2 Patients With Brain Metastases (RTOG 0119)

“…(19,20,21,22,23,11,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33) Three independent randomized trials, including this trial, have been run. (34,35) It is noteworthy that all of the trials from Lissoni and colleagues have had positive outcomes and, as of yet, there have been no confirmatory publications from outside of his group.…”

The efficacy and safety of melatonin in concurrent chemotherapy or radiotherapy for solid tumors: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Compared with a recently published metaanalysis [16] that included 21 RCTs, 13 more RCTs were excluded by our study, due to their inappropriate design. These 13 excluded RCTs did not assess the eYcacy of melatonin in concurrent chemotherapy or radiotherapy, but focused on its eYcacy with concurrent nutritional and supportive care [9,[17][18][19][20], hormone therapy [21], or biotherapy (IL-2 [22][23][24][25], TNF [25,26]). …”

Desenvolvimento e validação de métodos bioanalíticos para o monitoramento dos produtos das vias metabólicas do triptofano em linhagem celular de glioma humano

“…A sua natureza maligna os torna a quarta maior causa de morte (34). Os tumores da glia são originados a partir de células da neuroglia transformadas.…”

“…Os tumores da glia são originados a partir de células da neuroglia transformadas. A neuroglia é formada por quatro tipos de células: astrócitos, oligodendrócitos, ependimócitos e microglia (34 (38,39).…”

“…It has been proposed that melatonin can regulate skin functions [12,15], and it is also known that melatonin can have an antiproliferative effect on tumor cells, including melanoma cells [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. Melanomas represent a heterogeneous group of tumors [23] demonstrating diverse behaviors in response to various treatment strategies [24,25].…”