Human melanoma-specific, HLA restricted, cytotoxic T-cell lines can be generated by in vitro stimulation and culturing of peripheral lymphocytes, or lymph node cells, with autologous or HLA-A region matched melanomas in the presence of a low concentration (5 U/ml) of IL-2. Stimulation is followed by a period of clonal expansion and differentiation into cytotoxic T-cells specific for melanoma. We investigated the effect of the PKC modulating drug phorbol dibutyrate combined with the calcium ionophore Ionomycin on growth and differentiation of the cell lines. The growth of the T-cell lines was substantially augmented in the presence of the drugs with increases of 10-fold or more in clonal expansion by 3 weeks of culture. The cell lines were IL-2 dependent for growth in the presence or absence of the drugs and the phenotypic distribution remained predominantly CD3+ T-cells of mixed CD4 and CD8 phenotypes. In spite of the increased rate of growth in the presence of the drugs, autologous melanoma-specific cytotoxicity was almost completely abrogated in those cultures. The cells were, however, nonspecifically lytic in the presence of concanavalin A. The melanoma-specific cytotoxic response was completely restored following culture with IL-2 alone. The results suggest that the human tumor-specific cytotoxic T-cell response can be induced and amplified in the presence of immune modulating drugs.