Small bowel involvement by primary and secondary malignant melanoma. Report of three cases and review of the literature
2004
Abstract
Malignant melanoma is known by its unpredictability to metastasise to practically any organ. Among gastrointestinal involvement, the small bowel is affected in 30 - 75 % of cases.
Primary malignancies of the small intestine in general are unusual, thus malignant melanoma alone represents a significant proportion of all neoplasms in the small bowel. Primary malignant melanoma of the small intestine was described only in few case reports.
We describe three cases of small bowel involvement by primary and secondary malignant melanoma.