The current status of somatostatin receptors in malignant melanoma

On the basis that melanomas are of neural crest origin and might contain somatostatin receptors, the authors utilized 111In Pentetreotide (OctreoScan) to image 16 melanoma patients with known sites of disease. Twelve of 16 patients were positive with 38 percent imaging all sites. No lesion less than 1.5 cm imaged nor did one ocular and one amelanotic melanoma. Of the five described somatostatin receptors, OctreoScan binds only 2 and 5 suggesting that not all melanomas contain those receptors. It is concluded that melanomas contain somatostatin receptors and that this property might be used for imaging, tumor suppression with Octreotide, and/or as a target for Octreotide labelled with therapeutic agents such as immune complexes, chemotherapeutic agents or high energy radioisotopes.