Abstract
Malignant melanoma in children occurs quite rarely, but it seems to have different characteristics from those in adults. For 33 years from 1962 to 1994, totally 405 cases of malignant melanoma visited Dermatology Division of National Cancer Center Hospital. Out of them, 15 cases (3.7%) were children of less than 18 years old. The disease type was NM in 9 cases, SSM in 4 cases, ALM in 1 case and unknown in 1 case. Compared with adult cases, NM is more and ALM is less. The site of occurrence was the head in 1 case, neck in 1 case, trunk in 3 cases, forearm in 1 case, palm in 1 case, thigh in 4 cases, lower leg in 1 case, sole in 2 cases and unknown in 1 case. The distribution was quite different from adult cases. Precursor lesions of congenital giant pigmented nevus existed in 4 out of 15 cases (26.4%), but not definitely in other 11 cases. In the former group of 4 cases, the disease type was NM in 3 and unknown in 1. Two of 3 NM cases died and the prognosis was poor. In the latter group of 11 cases, NM occurred in 6, SSM in 4 and ALM in 1. Although 2 cases died, the prognosis was relatively good.
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