The triad of bilateral retinoblastoma, dysplastic naevus syndrome and multiple cutaneous malignant melanomas: a case report and review of the literature

Malignant melanoma in transplant patients: review of five cases

The characteristics of malignant melanoma arising in transplant patients are not clearly delineated. We describe clinical and histological features of malignant melanoma in five transplant patients. All transplant patients with melanoma arising post-transplantation had a previous history of skin cancer. Two had a history of internal organ malignancy. Three patients had thick malignant melanomas (Clark level III or higher, or >0.76 mm Breslow thickness). Lymph-node metastases occurred in one patient with cutaneous melanoma. Local cutaneous metastases occurred in one patient. Mean duration from transplantation to melanoma was 15.6 years. Two cases of aggressive metastatic melanoma responded well to cessation of immunosuppression. Three patients with nonmetastatic disease responded well to conventional complete excision and continuation of immunosuppression.

Evaluation of germline CDKN2A, ARF, CDK4, PTEN, and BRAF alterations in atypical mole syndrome

Atypical mole syndrome is a sporadic or an inherited condition with an increased risk of melanoma. Germline mutations in the CDKN2A, ARF, CDK4 and somatic mutations in the PTEN and BRAF genes have been associated with melanoma. In this study, we evaluated genes associated with familial and sporadic melanoma for mutations in 28 probands with the atypical mole syndrome. No sequence alterations in the coding regions or in the splice junctions of CDKN2A, ARF, CDK4, PTEN or BRAF were identified. These data suggest that genes evaluated in this study are unlikely to be candidate genes for atypical mole syndrome and support the notion that unknown susceptibility gene/s for this disease exist.