Case of cutaneous malignant melanoma surviving 16 years with late recurrence

Late recurrence, defined as that occurring 10 or more years after diagnosis, is an unusual event in cutaneous malignant melanoma (MM). A 59-year-old woman presented with a black nodule measuring 10 mm x 9 mm on the sole of her right foot. She was diagnosed with MM and the tumor was totally excised with 5 cm of the normal surrounding skin. Eleven years after the operation, five in-transit metastases were found in her right limb. They were all excised and beta-interferon (IFN-beta) was injected into the skin around the postoperative scars. However, numerous new in-transit skin metastases have been emerging every year in her right limb. Fifty-four in-transit skin metastases have so far been found. Recently, there have been few in-transit metastases. All in-transit metastatic lesions were excised and local IFN-beta injections were conducted continuously. There is no evidence of metastases to the internal organs or lymph nodes. This report describes this case with a brief review of the published work concerning the rare late recurrences of MM.