Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Nov 4;92(S1):e2021112.
doi: 10.23750/abm.v92iS1.11201.

Early diagnosis of primary melanoma of caecum. Case report and review of the literature

Affiliations
Review

Early diagnosis of primary melanoma of caecum. Case report and review of the literature

Beatrice D'Orazio et al. Acta Biomed. .

Abstract

Malignant gastrointestinal melanoma is usually a metastatic lesion. We report the case of a 79-year-old female asymptomatic patient. Colonoscopy revealed one plane 15 mm pigmented lesion in the caecum. Neither CT scan of the abdomen nor right hemicolectomy revealed no metastatic disease. Histopathological examination of the surgical specimen was indicative of malignant melanoma.A set of additional enquires such as laboratory and imaging tests did not point out any suspicious lesions in the skin, eye, leptomeninges or other sites. Therefore, we made the diagnosis of primary colonic melanoma.The diagnosis of this disease is still a challange and often demanding for a multidisciplinary approach, involving the surgeon, onclogist and even immunotherapy or radiotherapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Each author declares that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g. consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangement etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Colonoscopy: endoscopic view of caecum. At caecum level presence of a pigmented plane lesion of around 15mm.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Histological picture, 45x: Melanoma antigen (Melan-A) positive

References

    1. U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2017. United States Cancer Statistics: 1999–2009 Incidence and Mortality Web-Based Report. doi: 10.1089/ct.2014;26.273-6.
    1. Poggi SH, Madison JF, Hwu WJ, Bayar S, Salem RR. Colonic melanoma, primary or regressed primary. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2000;30:441–4. - PubMed
    1. Blecker D, Abraham S, Furth EE, Kochman ML. Melanoma in the gastrointestinal tract. Am J Gastroenterol. 1999;94:3427–33. - PubMed
    1. Alazmi WM, Nehme OS, Regalado JJ, Rogers AI. Primary gastric melanoma presenting as a nonhealing ulcer. Gastrointest Endosc. 2003;57:431–3. - PubMed
    1. La Selva D, Kozarek RA, Dorer RK, Rocha FG, Gluck M. Primary and metastatic melanoma of the GI tract: clinical presentation, endoscopic fndings, and patient outcomes. Surg Endosc. 2020;34:4456–62. - PubMed