Solitary metastatic melanoma of the soft palate

Melanoma of the oral mucosa is frequently situated in the area of the hard palate but extremely rarely in the soft palate. Even metastatic tumors are very rare in this location, and surgery at this stage is seldom indicated. Two patients with solitary metastatic melanoma of the soft palate are described. In both, a subtotal excision of the soft palate was performed, completed by reconstruction with pharyngeal flaps and island flaps from the hard palate. Both patients are alive and free from recurrence 12 years and 4 years after the primary diagnosis of melanoma and 2 years and 18 months after the palatal reconstruction. One patient has normal speech with no nasality; the other patient has very slight hypernasality but no other problems.