Metastasectomy for a malignant melanoma patient with soft tissue metastasis

Patients with stage IV metastatic melanoma have been traditionally managed with mainly palliative therapy such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or biologic therapy, yet their overall survival is unsatisfactory. Several recent series have indicated a long-term survival benefit after complete resection, (termed "metastasectomy") of distant metastatic foci in patients with metastatic melanoma. Unlike other palliative modalities, surgery like metastasectomy can rapidly render a patient clinically disease-free with rather minimal morbidity, a short-term of hospitalization and a quick recovery time. This may prolong the survival and improve the quality of life of patients with stage IV melanoma if all the clinicoradiologically-evident tumors can be completely resected. We report herein on a case of performing metastasectomy in a patient who had malignant melanoma with soft tissue metastasis of the breast (T3a/bN0M1a), even though there was a regrettable result.