MELANOBLASTOMA DISEASE IN LABORATORY MINI PIGS - A MODEL FOR STUDY OFHUMAN-MALIGNANT MELANOMAS

Human malignant melanoma is a progressively growing tumour mostly with a fatal prognosis during short time. Its frequency has doubled in som e states of the USA during the last few years. Surgical treatment, whi ch is still generally used, has very low efficiency due to the numerou s metastases in different organs. An animal model is a necessary prere quisite to develop a new therapy method. We have recorded primary cuta neous malignant melanomas as well as extensive metastases in the visce ral organs in darkly pigmented laboratory minipigs. The primary skin t umours were mostly multiple and they showed a tuberous nodular form. T he regular occurrence of tumours in a progeny of three specific mating types suggests the existence of genetic predisposition to malignant t ransformation. We discuss the use of this animal model for further stu dies and treatment of human malignant melanoma by our ischemization te chnique developed previously.