Reactive Oxygen Species in the Biology of Melanoma

The incidence of melanoma has been increasing at an alarming rate worldwide. Although melanoma accounts for only 10% of skin cancer, it is responsible for at least 80% of skin cancer deaths. Malignant melanoma remains one of the cancers most resistant to treatment. Moreover, no effective therapy exists to inhibit the metastatic spread of this type of cancer. Research to further understanding of how melanoma cells differ from normal tissues is essential to make the discovery of potential new ways of attack. Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels have been associated with numerous pathological conditions, including cancer. Particularly, melanoma cells constituvely produce high amounts of ROS as compared with their non-tumoural counterpart, melanocytes (Policastro et al, 2009). In relation to this, one promising strategy relates to the development of new therapies taking advantage of the excess of ROS produced by melanomas. In this chapter, we review: our current understanding of the involvement of ROS in cancer and particularly in the biology of melanocytes and melanoma, therapeutic approaches related to intracellular ROS modulation and emerging gene therapy strategies based on intracellular ROS levels of melanoma.