Melanoma Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Melanoma, including details on identification, causes, prevention, treatment.

Metastatic malignant melanoma presenting as pancytopenia in a three-year-old boy.

Spiller SE, Hawkins DS, Finn LS, Sze RW, Sybert V

Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington 98105-0371, USA. sspiller@fhcrc.org

Malignant melanoma is rare in childhood and has never been reported to cause pancytopenia due to bone marrow metastases in a child. We report a 3-year-old boy with a large congenital melanocytic nevus who presented with bone pain and pancytopenia due to diffuse bone and bone marrow infiltration with metastatic melanoma without an identifiable primary site. Despite treatment with imatinib mesylate there was no response and the patient died with progressive disease. This case illustrates an unusual presentation of bone marrow failure secondary to malignant melanoma in a young child with symptomatic metastatic marrow infiltration, a rarely reported site of melanoma involvement in adults or children.

Published 6 June 2005 in Pediatr Blood Cancer, 45(1): 60-3.
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