World journal of surgery
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World journal of surgery · Apr 2001
Distribution and functional significance of somatostatin receptors in malignant melanoma.
Malignant melanoma is a neuroendocrine tumor that contains somatostatin receptors (SSTRs). Adjuvant therapy for melanoma is limited. Because melanomas arise from neural crest cells, we sought to evaluate the distribution of SSTR subtypes found in these tumors and their functional significance by imaging with 111In-pentetreotide scintigraphy (OctreoScan). ⋯ The SSTR mRNA for SSTR2 appears to be transcribed into functional protein that binds 111In-pentetreotide in more than half of these patients. Although OctreoScan has limited sensitivity for localizing melanomas, tumors that can be imaged by OctreoScan may be amenable to adjuvant therapy with octreotide or targeted therapy with high-energy radioisotope-labeled octreotide. These studies clearly define melanoma as a neuroendocrine tumor, which may open new avenues for tumor control.