Phenethyl Isothiocyanate Inhibits In Vivo Growth of Subcutaneous Xenograft Tumors of Human Malignant Melanoma A375.S2 Cells WEI-YA NI1*, HSU-FENG LU2*, SHU-CHUN HSU3, YU-PING HSIAO4,5, KUO-CHING LIU6, JIA-YOU LIU2, BIN-CHUAN JI7, SHU-CHING HSUEH2, FANG-MING HUNG8, HUNG-SHENG SHANG9* and JING-GUNG CHUNG3,10

Numerous studies have shown that phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) induces apoptosis of different types of human cancer cell lines, however, there are no reports showing that PEITC inhibits tumor growth in a xenograft model of melanoma in nude mice. We investigated effects of PEITC on the growth of xenografted A375.S2 cell tumors in nude BALB/c mice. A375.S2 cancer cells were inoculated subcutaneously into the lower flanks of mice. Seven days post-inoculation, mice having one palpable tumor were randomly divided into three groups and injected intraperitoneally with PEITC (0, 20 and 40 mg/kg). PEITC reduced tumor weight but total body weight was unaffected. These in vivo results provide support for further investigations to determine the potential use of PEITC as