Mistletoe in the treatment of malignant melanoma
Esin Sakallı Çetin 1 * , Pınar Aslan Koşar, Nurten Özçelik
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1 Department of Medical Biology, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University Medical School, 48100, Muğla, Turkey* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Malignant melanoma is a malignant neoplasia drives from melanocytes. Malignant melanoma, the most causing death, is seen in the third place at skin cancer. Malignant melanoma shows intrinsic resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and variability in the course of the disease which are distinct features separating from other solid tumors. These features prevent the development and standardization of non-surgical treatment models of malignant melanoma. Although there is a large number of chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma, it hasn’t been demonstrated the survival advantage of adjuvant treatment with chemotherapeutic agents. Because of the different clinical course of malignant melanoma, the disease is thought to be closely associated with immune system. Therefore, immunomodulatory therapy models were developed. Mistletoe stimulates the immune system by increasing the number and activity of dendritic cells, thus it has been shown to effect on tumor growth and metastasis of malignant melanoma patient. Outlined in this review are the recent developments in the understanding the role of mistletoe as a complementary therapy for malignant melanoma.

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Review

J Clin Exp Invest, Volume 5, Issue 1, March 2014, 145-152

https://doi.org/10.5799/ahinjs.01.2014.01.0380

Publication date: 11 Mar 2014

Article Views: 2506

Article Downloads: 1811

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