Long-term survival of a metastatic cerebral melanoma

Background and purpose. - Long-term survival, i.e. more than 10 years after the surgical removal of a metastatic intracerebral melanoma, is very rare. We report such a case, the patient is living and in good health 12 years l ater. Case report. - In 1985, a 63-year-old woman underwent occipital craniotomy. An ovoid, 4 cm diameter, superficial, black tumor was removed. The diagnos is of a metastatic cerebral melanoma was confirmed by histopathology and im munocytochemistry. Ten years before she had had a superficial spreading mel anoma excised from her right foot. She has recently been seen without any r ecurrence of her melanoma. Conclusion. - Three other cases of long-term survival after metastatic cere bral melanoma have been reported. Additionally, our patient had her metasta tic cerebral melanoma ten years after removal of a superficial spreading me lanoma. There are only a few examples of such long intervals before the occ urrence of metastatic cerebral melanoma. Sometimes, the past medical histor y of a patient with cerebral metastasis should be investigated very careful ly.