VOLUME 16 - NUMBER 3 / May - June (Case report)
Wilberth Méndez-Vivas, Department of Surgical Oncology, Regional High Specialty Hospital of the Yucatan Peninsula, Merida, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Raúl Vázquez-Pelcastre, Department of General Surgery, Regional High Specialty Hospital of the Yucatan Peninsula, Merida, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Beatriz García-Robles, Department of Radiotherapy, Galenia Hospital, Cancun Oncology Center, Cancun, Q.R., Mexico
Marinee Torres-Aguilar, Department of Medical Oncology, Galenia Hospital, Cancun Oncology Center, Cancun, Q.R., Mexico
Julio Ceballos-Zapata, Department of Clinical Pathology, Regional High Specialty Hospital of the Yucatan Peninsula, Merida, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Jorge García-Silva, Department of Interventional Endoscopy, Hospital Regional Merida ISSSTE, Merida, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Metastatic melanoma to the pancreas was first described in 1931. Pancreatic metastasis occurs commonly in patients with diffuse disease with solitary metastasis being quite rare. The role of pancreatic metastasectomy in patients with malignant melanoma is currently not defined because there are very few available reports. The case is reviewed of a 54-year-old male patient with a history of left thigh Stage IIIC malignant nodular melanoma. After 11-month follow-up, a single metastasis to the head of the pancreas was detected. To improve our understanding on these lesions, a case treated with pancreatic resection in our hospital is described. Here, clinical features of presentation, treatment and follow-up are discussed, along with a literature review. Most authors recommend surgery as the treatment of choice for pancreatic metastases that are amenable to resection since it appears to be the only treatment able to prolong survival, although there are no large studies fully demonstrating this assumption. This review suggests that, in a patient with favorable tumor characteristics, surgery should be considered a viable treatment option, but studies have to be conducted with larger numbers of patients.
Keywords: Malignant cutaneous melanoma. Pancreatoduodenectomy. Immunotherapy.
