Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 5, 2026
A Melanoma Patient-Derived Xenograft Model
Published on: May 20, 2019
Second primary melanoma on a patient undergoing vemurafenib therapy. A case report
Giuliana Onnis1, Giuseppe Palmieri2, Maria Antonietta Montesu1
1Department of Surgical, Microsurgical and Medical Sciences, Dermatology Unit, University of Sassari, ICB-CNR, Sassari, Italy.
Background:
Several side effects have been reported during treatment with vemurafenib, including multiple benign lesions and, less frequently, atypical melanocytic proliferations and second primary melanomas.
Methods:
A 46-year-old man undergoing vemurafenib therapy for metastatic malignant melanoma was clinically and dermoscopically monitored using total-body mapping.
Results:
During BRAF inhibitor (BRAFi) treatment, the patient developed atypical melanocytic lesions and particularly secondary primary melanoma.
Conclusions:
Secondary melanomas are usually diagnosed during the early disease stage, and no case of advanced melanomas is reported in the literature, mostly due to careful surveillance in BRAFi-treated patients.
