These findings are in line with reports demonstrating caspase-8 cleavage after exposure to TRAIL or IR in RCCs (Pawlowski et al, 2000) and many other tumour types, including carcinomas of the liver, prostate and lungs (Yamanaka et al, 2000; Nimmanapalli et al, 2001; Sun et al, 2001), melanoma (Griffith et al, 1998) and Jurkat cells (Gong and Almasan, 2000; Belka et al, 2001; Kim et al, 2001a; Rudner et al, 2001; Suliman et al, 2001). This evidence concerns the gene CASP8 and melanoma.