In vitro activity: Treatment of Dacarbazine sensitizes melanomas to lysis of peptide-specific CTL and it is is mediated through Fas-independent pathway.

Cell Assay: Apotosis assay: UACC903 (UACC) cells treated with or without DTIC (20 μM) for 48 h are incubated with agonist anti-Fas Ab, CH-11 (500 ng/ml), for 5 and 16 h, respectively. To distinguish whether death/apoptosis is mediated by FasR, blocking anti-Fas Ab ZB4 (2 mg/ml) is added in the corresponding groups. At the end of incubation, cells are harvested and stained with propidium iodide and FITC-annexin V (BD PharMingen) for detecting apoptosis according to the instruction provided by the company. Ten thousand cells from each group are collected, and dead and apoptotic cells are analyzed without gating using CellQuest software.