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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2006;296:384.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A new study reveals that pigment-containing components within skin cells can retain various cancer drugs, a finding that may explain how melanomas can develop drug resistance (Chen KG et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi:10.1073/pnas.0600213103 [published online ahead of print June 15, 2006]).

Melanomas are often resistant to radiation therapy and to many chemotherapeutic agents. According to the American Cancer Society, there will be approximately 62 000 new diagnoses of melanoma in the United States in 2006 and approximately 7900 individuals will die of this disease.

Researchers led by scientists at the National Cancer Institute found that melanoma cells can sequester cytotoxic drugs such as cis-diaminedichloroplatinum II (cisplatin) in subcellular organelles such as melanosomes and that this drug accumulation modulates the formation of new melanosomes. Furthermore, they found that the altered melanogenesis resulted in increases in both intracellular pigmentation and melanosome-mediated export of cytotoxic . . . [Full Text of this Article]