Malignant melanoma with liver and spleen metastases: case report

RESUMO

CONTEXT The diagnosis of primary melanoma is easily confirmed after histological analysis of the lesion, whereas it is rarely diagnosed when the patient even has distant metastases. DESIGN: Case report CASE REPORT Malignant melanoma is responsible for about 1 percent of all deaths caused by cancer in the USA and only 3 percent of all malig-nant skin diseases. Malignant melanoma is a rare disease, although it corresponds to 65 percent of all deaths caused by skin cancer. The liver and spleen are rarely the first sites of melanoma metastases. This paper reports on the clinical picture of a patient with fatal malignant melanoma and hepatic and spleen metastases. As this was an un-usual presentation, the melanoma diagnosis could only be made after pathological analysis of the skin and hepatic lesions