Investigation of female survival benefit in metastatic melanoma

Epidemiological studies show female survival benefit in advanced metastatic melanoma. In investigating a possible mechanism for this female survival benefit, we have previously reported that the female steroid 17β-oestradiol significantly reduces invasion of a human melanoma cell line (A375-SM cells) and ocular melanoma cells through fibronectin. Neither cell type was found to possess oestrogen receptor-α. The aim of the current study was to obtain further information on the extent to which progression of cutaneous melanoma might be sex steroid sensitive by (a) examining the relationship between circulating sex steroids, sex hormone binding globulin and disease progression; (b) examining the relationship between sex steroid structure and the ability of steroids to reduce invasion of a melanoma cell line in vitro; and (c) examining the effects of sex steroids on proliferation of these cells in vitro. We report a significant reduction in circulating oestrone with disease progression in male but not female patients. Examining steroids for their ability to inhibit invasion of A375-SM cells through fibronectin in vitro, oestrogenic compounds (17β-oestradiol and oestrone) were found to inhibit invasion; in this respect, oestrone was approximately 50 times more potent than 17β-oestradiol; steroids lacking the benzene ring structure did not inhibit invasion, indeed dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) which acts as a precursor to androgenic steroids significantly enhanced invasion. Proliferation of A375-SM cells was unaffected by 17β-oestradiol, oestrone or dihydrotestosterone when cells were cultured on plastic; in contrast, all three steroids induced modest proliferation of cells when grown on fibronectin with dihydrotestosterone the most mitogenic of the three steroids. These data are consistent with sex steroids playing a role in melanoma progression.