Apaf-1 expression in malignant melanoma

Dear Editor,

We have previously reported that 10 out of 19 metastatic melanoma cell lines and 10 out of 24 melanoma specimens expressed low levels of Apaf-1, and that Apaf-1 expression inversely correlated with the chemosensitivity of melanoma cell lines in vitro.¹ Based on these observations, we proposed that Apaf-1 downregulation contributes to chemoresistance in malignant melanoma. In that study, we also suggested that Apaf-1 downregulation may be a late event during tumor progression (four out of five in situ melanomas were positive for Apaf-1). However, two recent Letters to the Editor published in this journal by Allen et al. and Peltenburg et al. imply a lower rate of downregulation of Apaf-1 in melanoma. In their panel of metastatic melanoma cell lines, only 1/11 and 1/10, respectively, were negative for Apaf-1.^{2, 3}

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