Because familial occurrences of uveal melanoma are rare, there have on
ly been 15 cases of familial melanoma reported in the literature. We s
tudied 11 additional families with a total of 24 members, in which two
or more members were afflicted with uveal melanoma. The median age at
diagnosis was 56.5 years, similar to the median age at diagnosis of t
he remaining patients treated in our institution. Thirteen were male a
nd 11 were female, which is consistent with the slight predominance of
males found in many large surveys of patients with uveal melanoma. Th
ere is a possibility of a heritable component present in these familie
s.