Surgical treatment of metastatic melanoma confined to the liver.

Metastatic melanoma is rarely confined to a single organ. Ten patients presenting with metastasis limited to the liver were treated surgically. Six of them had primary ocular melanomas. Treatment involved hepatic lobectomy in three and catheterization of the hepatic artery for regional chemotherapy in seven. Median survival following resection was 16 months and following catheterization five months. Nearly all long-term survivors were patients who had ocular melanoma. All patients presented with advanced liver involvement causing hepatomegaly. The study suggests that surgical treatment has a place in the management of solitary liver metastasis if there is no extrahepatic spread and diagnosis is not delayed.