Symptomatic malignant melanoma presenting as multiple gastrointestinal polyps

Abstract

We report on a 66-year-old man with a past medical history of gout who presented to his general practitioner (GP) in July 2009 with a history of nausea and intermittent diarrhoea. He had lost 6 kg in weight over 6 months. His GP found he was anaemic and referred him to a gastrointestinal outpatient clinic. He went on to have a gastroscopy and colonoscopy, which revealed multiple polyps in the stomach, duodenum and colon. Histology revealed that all the polyps were malignant melanoma. He had no known history of malignant melanoma. A staging CT scan revealed multiple lung metastases and he was referred for palliative care. The patient died 4 months after diagnosis. Copyright 2011 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.