In vitro effect of progesterone on human melanoma (BLM) cell growth.

Epidemiological data suggest there is a female sex advantage in melanoma skin cancer. Female sex hormones have been attributed to this protection. There has been no experimental evidence to link female sex hormones directly with melanoma protection until our recently published work on mouse melanoma (B16F10) cells. Our recently published work showed that progesterone significantly inhibited mouse melanoma cell growth in vitro. This study was extended to human melanoma (BLM) cells. Research work revealed that progesterone inhibited human melanoma cell growth also in vitro. The mechanism of inhibition was due to autophagy and this effect of progesterone was not mediated through progesterone receptor.