A Melanoma, Apparently Primary in a Breast

The history of this melanoma is worth recording because of the questions it suggests (1) on the possibility that melanoma may be a primary tumor of the breast, (2) on the fate of melanoma metastases, and (3) on the proper treatment of melanoma. Report of a Case Tumor of breast discovered in 1942; simple mammectomy in 1944; small bowel obstruction due to a metastasis in 1947; continued survival of patient in good health 14 years after discovery of tumor; comments on the course of this tumor and on the fate of emboli from it. A 52-year-old woman entered St. Vincent's Hospital on Aug. 10, 1944, because of a tumor which she had discovered two years before in her right breast. It had grown steadily. The breasts were flat and small. The tumor was 2 in. (5.08 cm.) in diameter, solitary, soft, spherical, unattached to the skin, and movable on the