Hydroxyanisole-induced regression of the Harding-Passey melanoma in mice.

The drug p-hydroxyanisole (OHA) was found to inhibit the incorporation of 3H-thymidine in the Harding-Passey melanoma cells in culture. Because the cultured cells had lost some of their pigment-forming capacity, the enzyme tyrosinase was added to the culture. This greatly increased the sensitivity of the cells to OHA, strongly suggesting that cells producing the enzyme would be preferentially killed by the drug. An in-vivo study of the effect of OHA injected into tumour-bearing mice showed a beneficial effect, including increased survival time, reduction in tumour size and in many cases complete loss of tumour and no recurrence. An experiment with animals immunologically suppressed by radiation suggests that the effect is not an immunological one.