[Primary malignant melanoma of the trachea. Apropos of a case]

Primary malignant melanoma of the lower airways is very rare. 24 cases have been collected over the past century. Our case was a patient of 52 years of age who had been discovered to have a tracheal tumour which was found to be a malignant melanoma and was treated with a Laser. The major problem is to establish that the tumour is primary. The combination of clinical evidence, paraclinical, subsequent outcome and in certain cases the autopsy enables the diagnosis of a primary tumour to be retained without having absolute certainty because a cutaneous melanoma can disappear after having metastasised.