Fine-needle-aspiration cytodiagnosis of recurrent malignant melanoma

Sixty-four patients with melanoma (28 with clinical stage I disease and 36 with clinical stages II through IV disease) were fine-needle biopsied on suspicion of recurrent melanoma. Eighty-four biopsies were aspirated percutaneously and three at exploratory laparotomy. A tumor mass was present at 81 biopsies. The remaining biopsies were taken with the guidance of liver scan or fluoroscopy. In the patients with the diagnosis of recurrent malignant melanoma the cytodiagnosis was correct in 45 patients out of 47. One patient was diagnosed as breast cancer and one as malignant mesenchymal tumor. Of 40 biopsies considered normal, three were revised to be melanoma. No false-positive diagnosis was found. The frequency of false-negative diagnosis was 6%. Fine-needle-aspiration cytology is a suitable method to establish a correct diagnosis when there is a suspicion of recurrent disease during the follow-up of melanoma patients. The high diagnostic accuracy in patients with enlarged lymph nodes is excellent and makes the method preferable to diagnostic surgical excision biopsies.