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Primary malignant melanoma of the stomach: report of a case

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Abstract

We report a case of primary malignant melanoma (MM) of the stomach. The patient, a 73-year-old man, was referred to our hospital for investigation of an elevated lesion in the stomach, detected by gastroscopy. On admission, physical examinations and laboratory data were unremarkable. Gastroscopy revealed a pigmented, elevated tumor, approximately 2 cm in diameter, in the posterior wall of the stomach. A biopsy was taken, which resulted in a diagnosis of MM, based on the presence of melanin in tumor cells. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography showed no accumulation of tracer except for the tumor in the stomach, indicating that it was a primary MM of the stomach. The patient underwent distal gastrectomy, but died of recurrence 1 year later. Very few cases of primary MM of the stomach have been reported. Thus, we report this case, followed by a review of the literature.

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None of the authors have a conflict of interest to disclose.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Nagoya National Hospital, 4-1-1 Sannomaru, Naka-ku, Nagoya, 460-0001, Japan

    Kazuo Yamamura & Ken Kondo

  2. Department of Pathology, Nagoya National Hospital, 4-1-1 Sannomaru, Naka-ku, Nagoya, 460-0001, Japan

    Suzuko Moritani

Authors
  1. Kazuo Yamamura
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  2. Ken Kondo
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  3. Suzuko Moritani
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Correspondence to Kazuo Yamamura.

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Yamamura, K., Kondo, K. & Moritani, S. Primary malignant melanoma of the stomach: report of a case. Surg Today 42, 195–199 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-011-0077-5

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