The radiosensitivity of melanoma cells in culture

Abstract

There is frequently a poor response to the clinical treatment of malignant melanomas by radiotherapy and it is often stated that many melanomas are resistant to radiation Cade, 1948; Rock Carling, Windeyer and Smithers, 1955). In fact, Paterson (1948) states that if radiation cures the tumour, it was probably not the ordinary malignant melanoma. It does not yet seem clear whether the radio-resistance is due to an intrinsic property of the melanoma cells, such as a high D₀, or a large extrapolation number; or whether mechanical or environmental factors, such as depletion of oxygen, are responsible. In an attempt to answer some of these questions, the Harding-Passey melanoma has been trained to grow in single-cell culture and its radiation resistance measured by the traditional Puck cloning technique (Puck, Marcus and Cieciura, 1955).