Metastatic malignant melanoma from mother to fetus

Abstract

PROBLEMS OF 0 transplantation immunity is the great success of the fetus as a homograft.1Another transplantation phenomenon is the extremely rare occurrence of metastasis to the placenta or fetus from a malignant tumor in the mother.1,6 There are only 17 such cases reported in the literature.6Seven of these cases were malignant melanomas, of which 3 had metastases in the placenta and 3 in the fetus.697One case demonstrated metastatic involvement of both the placenta and fetus.3The infant developed malignant melanoma at 8 months of age.3In this report the second case of maternal malignant melanoma with metastases to both the placenta and fetus is presented.At birth tumor cells were demonstrated in the cord blood and the infant had an unusual hematologic picture characterized by a mild anemia, macrocytosis, normoblastosis, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia and agranulocytosis.An attempt was made to modify the course of the malignant melanoma in the infant by applying split thickness skin grafts from the mother and maternal grandmother. CASE REPORTSCase 1. R. McC., a 28-year-old white female, gravida I, para 0, was hospitalized January 10, 1964, 20 days prior to her expected date of confinement, because of widespread cutaneous, subcutaneous and deep soft tissue nodules.