The City of Hope National Medical Center Duarte, California Regulation of Fas Ligand in Melanoma Cutaneous melanoma is increasing worldwide at a rate exceeding that of all other solid tumors except lung cancer in women.
Chemotherapy is minimally effective in recurrent melanoma.
Unique amongst solid tumors is its sensitivity to immune-modulated therapies. IFNs have been since known to inhibit cell division and modulate the immune response. Our laboratory has cloned the promoter for the FasL gene, and characterized its function in T-cells through a series of mutant FasL promoter reporters. Most importantly, we now show that IFN-alpha suppresses inappropriate expression of FasL in melanoma. Regulation of FasL in melanoma may be similar to its regulation in T-cells.