1991 Volume 31 Issue 4 Pages 579-584
A patient with pulmonary and intrabronchial metastasis of malignant melanoma, one of which showed a cavitary lesion on the chest X-ray film is reported. He had a history of extensive resection of the left heel because of primary malignant melanoma. Two years and three months after the surgery, he developed lung metastasis. He had been treated several times for the metastatic lung lesions for nine months at another hospital, when he developed a new lesion with a cavity on his chest X-ray film. He was referred to our hospital on the suspicion of lung tuberculosis. The cavitary lesions, as well as the cavity itself, had become consistently larger, and finally developed into giant cystic lesions on his chest X-ray. He died of respiratory failure four years after the initial surgery. Postmortem examination revealed that all the mass lesions, including the giant cavitary lesion, which had been found on his chest X-rays were consistent with metastatic malignant melanomas.
It is rare that a metastatic malignant melanoma of the lung presents as a large cavitating tumor shadow on chest X-ray.
