Primary malignant melanoma of the lung.

Primary malignant melanoma of the lung is a rare neoplasm; to date, there have been approximately 20 cases reported in the literature. Extensive clinical and postmortem examinations are necessary to exclude the possibility that the lung tumor does not represent a metastasis from an occult cutaneous or extracutaneous melanoma. We present a case of a 62-yr-old man who appears to have had a primary melanoma of the left upper lobe of the lung. The literature on primary pulmonary melanoma is also reviewed.