Symptomatic gastrointestinal metastases from malignant melanoma. A clinical study.

Gastrointestinal metastases from malignant melanomas are not uncommon but rarely cause symptoms. We report six patients hospitalized because of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms due to metastases from a primary extraintestinal melanoma. The clinical symptoms are nonspecific and include abdominal pain, weight loss, and occasionally GI bleeding. The diagnosis may, therefore, be unduly delayed, even though the prognosis of GI metastases from malignant melanomas is poor and the results of adjuvant chemotherapy, as well as of surgery, are not encouraging. Screening of patients with malignant melanoma for GI metastases is not yet routinely indicated, but should be considered in prospective studies evaluating adjuvant therapy.