Clinical characteristics of early cutaneous melanoma

Clinical characteristics of the primary tumor in 786 patients with superficial spreading melanoma were studied in a prospective sequential series of patients from the Melanoma Clinical Cooperative Group. The most useful features for early diagnosis were change in size and change in color, present in 71% and 55% respectively of patients with level II lesions. Increase in height of lesion correlated with more advanced disease. Ulceration and bleeding were predominantly found in advanced primary lesions and are consequently of limited use in early recognition. Awareness of the historical and clinical features of the primary tumor should result in early recognition and cure of most primary superficial spreading melanomas.     

Biosynthesis and subcellular localization of histamine in H-110 lymphoma

The histidine decarboxylase activity has been studied in the H-110 Lymphoma implanted in Balb-c mice. The enzymatic activity has been determined using DL-Histidine 1-14C by measuring the I--14CO2 liberated during the incubation. It has been found that the histidine decarboxylase activity in the tumor is the highest of the studied tissues. The pretreatment for 5 days with two cytostatic drugs, cyclophosphamide and 5-fluoruracile, determined a decrease of the enzymatic activity in the tumor of 33 and 54 per cent, respectively. This effect has not been observed in the lung. The pretreatment of the animals during 10 days with 0.1 mg per kg body of histamine, which in other experimental tumors induces an increase of the endogenous content of histamine, produces a decrease of the tumoral histidine decarboxylase activity. The histamine-14C uptake was not modified by this pretreatment. The subcellular localization of the radioactivity after pretreatment with histamine-14C evidenced that the nuclear fraction of the tumor contained between 2 and 10 times the radioactivity of other tissues of the same animal.