Evidence of Resveratrol’s Benefit in Melanoma

Recent lab studies suggest that resveratrol may be useful in treating the B16 melanoma cell line, which is known to be resistant to doxorubicin chemotherapy.¹⁵⁶ Animal studies indicate that resveratrol can reduce tumor size and inhibit the invasiveness of two highly aggressive skin melanoma cancer cells. It appears that taken orally resveratrol inactivates and lowers the levels of a certain enzyme that promotes metastasis and tumor growth.¹⁹⁰

Results of recent studies on eye tumors were also promising. In mice models with induced human uveal melanoma, those receiving daily oral doses of resveratrol (2-50 mg/kg body weight) showed significantly less tumor growth than untreated mice. The differences in tumor growth rates were dose-dependent and noticeable within days.¹⁶⁹

Different forms of resveratrol may exhibit even greater anti-tumor activity. One resveratrol analog, hexahydroxystilbene (M8), is particularly potent. When administered daily for four weeks to mice with melanoma tumors large enough to be felt, M8 significantly reduced tumor size. Even better results were obtained when M8 was combined with the conventional chemotherapy drug dacarbazine, with 50% of the tested rats becoming completely tumor-free after only 14 days of treatment and the other half having only small tumors left.⁵⁷

When tested in rats where the melanoma had already spread to the lymph nodes, M8 reduced the number of tumor cells in the nodes by over 50%. Additionally, M8 treatment completely prevented development of metastasis from melanoma to lymph nodes in the groin area, whereas 56% of untreated rats progressed to this stage of metastasis.⁵⁷

These results are truly remarkable, given that a recent review of dacarbazine indicates the average response rate in stage IV melanoma is only 15.3%. Since dacarbazine is the only FDA-approved drug for advanced stage melanoma and has serious adverse side effects, this new resveratrol analog may offer some real hope for these patients.¹⁹¹