title: Metastatic malignant melanoma presenting as pancytopenia in a three-year-old boy.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Washington 98105-0371, USA. sspiller@fhcrc.org
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Spiller
authors.forename: Douglas S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Hawkins
authors.forename: Laura S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Finn
authors.forename: Raymond W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Sze
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sybert
mesh_terms: D019046:Bone Marrow Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D009508:Nevus, Pigmented / Q000151:congenital*; D010198:Pancytopenia / Q000209:etiology*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*