Surgical treatment of gastric metastases from cutaneous melanoma: Experience of the National Cancer Institute of Milan

Aim: To evaluate the role of a surgical approach in patients affected with gastric metastases from cutaneous melanoma. Methods: A retrospective review of our local melanoma database of 2100 patients identified 31 cases with gastric metastatic deposits. Nine of them were considered candidates for surgical resection. Results: Median overall survival of the 9 patients who underwent surgery was 14.2 months. Six (67%) underwent a local radical resection of disease, and 3 (33%) had a simple exploratory laparotomy. The median survival was 21.6 months (range, 4-32 months) for the subset receiving radical surgery and 3.6 months (range, 2-6 months) for the patients who had no resection. Median follow-up was 14.2 months. No specific correlation of serologic LDH levels and final outcome, as documented elsewhere, was observed. A marked decreased or substantial remission of symptoms with an improvement in quality of life was observed in all radically resected patients. Conclusions: Patients with gastric metastases from melanoma may benefit from surgery if all macroscopic disease can be removed. In addition, gastric resection in patients with symptomatic melanoma spread to the stomach provides important symptomatic palliation.