title: Malignant melanoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma that were diagnosed concurrently and treated simultaneously: A case report.
abstract: Malignant melanoma can be successfully treated when it is identified in its early stages, but the disease is associated with a poor prognosis when it is detected in an advanced stage. Papillary thyroid carcinoma is a thyroid cancer that has a good prognosis. The present study reports a rare case of malignant melanoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma that were diagnosed concurrently and treated simultaneously. The present patient was a 37-year-old male, in whom examination of a skin biopsy that was obtained from a lesion in the right retroauricular region revealed the lesion to be consistent with malignant melanoma. The patient underwent radical neck dissection upon the detection of malignant melanoma metastasis to the sentinel lymph node. Metastases of papillary thyroid carcinoma were detected in four out of 38 lymph nodes. The patient was then diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma and underwent total thyroidectomy. The patient was administered with high-dose followed by moderate-dose interferon-α therapy for the treatment of malignant melanoma. The patient also received concurrent radioactive iodine therapy for the treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma, at the same time as the interferon therapy. The two primary tumors of the patient were treated successfully. During therapy, no serious side-effects were observed, with the exception of fever caused by high-dose interferon therapy. Malignant melanoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma may occur concurrently, although this is rarely observed. The present study reports a rare case that demonstrates that the two tumors can be successfully treated simultaneously.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Gulhane Military Medical Academy Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Alpaslan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozgun
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Gulhane Military Medical Academy Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Tolga
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tuncel
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Gulhane Military Medical Academy Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Emirzeoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Gulhane Military Medical Academy Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Serkan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Celik
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Gulhane Military Medical Academy Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Oguz
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bilgi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Gulhane Military Medical Academy Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haholu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gulhane Military Medical Academy Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Muammer
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urhan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Gulhane Military Medical Academy Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Bulent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Karagoz
keywords: malignant melanoma; papillary thyroid carcinoma