Perspectives of melatonin use in clinical oncology

Nowadays great successes have been reached in chemotherapy treatment of cancer. New medications let increase time to progression, overall survival and to improve a quality of life. Recently, antitumor activity of melatonin is actively investigated. Many in vitro/in vivo studies are devoted to this topic. In these trials was shown ability of melatonin to inhibit tumor growth and to potentiate the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy. This review describes the use of melatonin in the treatment of patients with solid tumors. Melatonin has been used in both monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy and immunotherapy. According to these studies, the use of melatonin increases the objective response and overall survival of patients and reduce the incidence of side effects of chemotherapy. However, this epiphyseal hormone does not routinely used in clinical oncology and will be must to investigate it in more clinical trials.