Increased frequency of multiple primary melanomas in hereditary familial melanoma.

Multiple primary melanomas can be observed in a frequency of 1-4% in melanoma patients, while they obviously occur more frequently in hereditary familial melanoma. In every 8th patient with an--in itself rare--hereditary familial melanoma a development of two or more primary melanomas has to be expected. Casuistically, a family is reported where a 14-year-old girl died of malignant melanoma, whose mother later on developed two primary malignant melanomas in an interval of 2 years.