Giant melanoma and depression

Abstract

A 29-year-old female patient presented with a giant melanoma on the external side of the left arm and concomitant multiple visceral metastases. The patient also had major depression and had avoided a consultation despite the large size of the lesion, delaying the diagnosis and treatment of her melanoma, which as far as we know is the largest, primary cutaneous melanoma ever reported. Excision of the tumor was performed as a palliative treatment and she died 1 month later. Depression has been identified as a factor that can worsen the course of a disease, although in this case it could have been the direct consequence of the dermatologic process.