Malignant melanoma with liver and spleen metastases: case report.

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% of all deaths caused by cancer in the USA and only 3% of all malignant skin diseases. Malignant melanoma is a rare disease, although it corresponds to 65% 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.