Spontaneous regression of metastatic visceral malignant melanoma

Spontaneous regressions of malignant tumors are rare. This report describes a patient who, after local recurrence of melanoma in his neck, developed pulmonary metastases which subsequently regressed. The patient was a 72-year-old retired farmer. Over the four years and five months from the discovery of the metastases to his death, this patient's pulmonary nodules regressed. Treatment was palliative, and there is no evidence that his immune system was artificially stimulated. He died from complications of a surgical repair of a hiatus hernia. No increase in the size of the pulmonary nodules was noted in chest X-rays taken during the three months before his death.