PMID: 9441515Jan 24, 1998Paper

Significance of melatonin in malignant diseases

Wiener klinische Wochenschrift
C Bartsch, H Bartsch

Abstract

The review summarizes experimental and preliminary clinical findings relating to the application of melatonin in malignancy to allow a differential discussion concerning its potential therapeutic use in cancer patients. In vivo experiments show that melatonin inhibits chemically induced, as well as spontaneous rodent tumors, but is mostly ineffective in controlling the growth of undifferentiated transplantable tumors. Some human and murine in vitro cancer cell lines are inhibited by physiological concentrations of melatonin, but the majority of the tested cell lines is resistant to melatonin or can be inhibited at pharmacological doses only. In individual cases melatonin was reported to stimulate cell growth. The molecular mechanisms of how melatonin affects the proliferation of cancer cells under in vivo and in vitro conditions are mostly unknown and their elucidation will require further basic research to determine the therapeutic potential of melatonin. From a theoretical point of view substitution therapy with melatonin might be worthwhile since a progressive decline of pineal melatonin secretion is observed parallel to the growth of the primary tumor in breast and prostate cancer. The mechanisms involved in this depression...Continue Reading

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