Placental metastasis of melanoma: A new case and literature review

We report a case of placental metastasis of melanoma in a 30-year-old woman, without fetal involving, the child being healthy after 5 months of follow-up. Placental or fetal metastasis of maternal cancer are rare, but melanoma is remarkable by its metastatic potential among the cancers of the woman in age to procreate. Thirty cases of placental or foetal metastasis of melanoma have been reported. The fetal involvement seems to be always associated with at least a microscopic invasion of the placenta, that is why systematic miscroscopic examination of the placenta in case of maternel cancer needs to be encouraged. The other predictive factors of fetal involvement seem multiple and complex. The follow-up of the children arisen from a mother affected by a cancer must be close even if, in case of metastasis in children, the prognosis is very poor. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.