[Metastatic malignant melanoma of the urinary bladder: a case report]

A 62-year-old male underwent resection of malignant melanoma of left breast skin in 2006. In 2007, he underwent lymph node dissection and chemotherapy (DAV-feron therapy) for left axillary lymph nodes metastasis. In Aug 2008, he was referred to our department with chief complaint of macrohematuria. Two non-papillary bladder tumors were detedted on cystoscopy and CT/ MRI showed multiple lymph node swelling, including left inguinal, paraaortic, and right cervical regions. As malignant melanoma cells were found on urinary cytology, a diagnosis of metastatic malignant melanoma of the urinary bladder was made. It was thought that tumor resection would not contribute to prognostic improvement because of multiple lymph node metastases. Therefore, tumor resection was not performed. The patient is currently receiving chemotherapy. This is the eleventh case of metastatic malignant melanoma of the urinary bladder to be reported in the Japanese literature. There have been no previous reports of cases in which urinary cytology was positive for malignant melanoma cells.