Giant acral melanoma on the left thumb of a korean patient.
The acral regions of the limbs of Asians are predisposed to develop malignant melanoma, but giant-sized acral melanoma has not been previously reported in the Asian population. Giant-sized melanoma implies aggressive tumor invasion and so it is more difficult to achieve a therapeutic cure. A 56-year-old woman presented with a giant acral melanoma of the left thumb with concomitant bone destruction and axillary lymph node metastasis. The initial lesion was a subungual black macule on the left thumb that had grown into a giant 7.0x4.0x3.5 cm-sized melanoma over a 3 year period. The left thumb was amputated and the axillary lymph nodes were completely dissected. During the ensuing 3 months, she underwent adjuvant treatment with interferon-alpha-2a. The interesting feature of this case is that the large melanoma mass of this patient, which was accompanied with adjacent bone destruction and lymph node metastasis, had developed rapidly from a small black macule in the nail matrix, and this black macule was suspected to be a subungual melanoma.
Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
Jae Hwan
JH
Kim
Se Yeong
SY
Jeong
Jae Bin
JB
Shin
Ki Woong
KW
Ro
Soo Hong
SH
Seo
Sang Wook
SW
Son
Il-Hwan
IH
Kim