Malignant melanoma in childhood: clinical course and response to chemotherapy.

Malignant melanoma is uncommon in patients less than 20 years of age, and little is known about the response to chemotherapy in this age group. We report here a series of 18 children, of whom ten with metastatic disease were treated with cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and dactinomycin. Only two of nine evaluable patients failed to show an objective response to therapy. Five of ten patients treated are alive and free of tumor 12 to 80 months from the start of chemotherapy. Three have been in remission for more than five years. Results suggest that melanoma in this age group may be more responsive to chemotherapy than melanoma in adult patients and that a trial of this therapy in a larger number of children with evaluable disease is warranted.