Extraocular Malignant Melanoblastoma

The treatment of malignant melanoblastomas presents a discouraging and difficult problem. The mortality rate is notoriously high and the results of treatment uniformly poor. The physician who seeks to increase his knowledge of the melanotic tumors is confronted by a large volume of interesting but confusing literature. We have learned a great deal about these tumors through clinical experience. An enormous amount of investigation has also been carried out in regard to the related developmental, cytologic, genetic, endocrinologic, chemical and physical aspects of pigment cell activity. So urgent was the need for correlating this basic knowledge that a conference was recently held to discuss all the various aspects of the "Biology of Normal and Atypical Pigment Cell Growth."1This historic meeting, in which many of the pioneers and leaders of current thought in this field participated, stands as a milestone in efforts to understand and combat these complex lesions.