Breast metastasis from malignant melanoma: A report of three cases

Breast cancer is the commonest malignancy in women, however metastatic involvement of the breast represents a rare event. Melanoma and lymphoma are the most common malignancies involved in breast metastasis. Although it is usually an unexpected diagnosis, breast metastasis from melanoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of breast disease every time that a new lump is discovered in a woman with a previous malignant melanoma, even years after the primary lesion. We describe in this paper our experience of three Caucasian females presented with metastatic melanoma to the breast. Despite the literature finding of a higher frequency of breast metastases in younger patients, probably because of the greater vascularization of the glands, two out of three of our cases occurred in post-menopausal women. The treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma of the breast is the excision of the lesion with clear margins, eventually followed by systemic therapy for the primary disease after comprehensive staging. The diagnosis of breast metastasis of melanoma is of great importance, since this finding represents a poor prognostic sign.