An uncommon presentation and course of metastatic malignant melanoma: a case report

Most patients with brain metastases from malignant melanoma are diagnosed after treatment for known extracranial metastases and have a poor outcome despite various local and systemic therapeutic approaches. Here we discuss an unusual case where a 45-year old patient presented with a brain metastasis as the first symptom of disease and where the presumed primary lesion later was found in the gastro-intestinal tract. Treatment consisted of sequential surgical removal of a total of 4 tumor sites (2 extracranially), whole-brain radiotherapy and two radiosurgery procedures within 13 months. Following her last treatment, the patient has now been in remission for 20 months. This case illustrates that some patients with multi-organ melanoma manifestations may benefit from the repeated use of effective local therapeutic approaches and may experience a quite favourable prognosis.