Background: The clinical course of uveal melanoma differs greatly from that of cutaneous melanoma. Methods: Twenty‐four patients with metastatic uveal melanoma (13 men and 11 women; median age at diagnosis, 56 years [range, 17–67 years]) were evaluated retrospectively. Results: Main sites of metastases were liver (87%), lung (46%), bone (29%), and skin (17%). Median relapse‐free survival time was 36 months (range, 5–240 months). Median survival time after clinical detection of metastases was 9 months (range, 1–54 months). Relapse‐free survival time was significantly greater in patients 50 years of age or younger. After manifestation of metastases, the clinical course was more favorable in patients in whom the liver was either not involved at all or not among the first sites of dissemination. These patients had a median survival time of 19 months, compared with 7 months for patients in whom the liver was involved initially. First‐line systemic treatment of metastatic disease yielded three cases of stable disease lasting 6–14 months, but no complete or partial response. Three patients received intraarterial liver perfusion as first‐ or second‐line treatment, resulting in one partial response, which lasted 6 months. Conclusion: Treatment and prognosis results of patients with metastatic uveal melanoma were poor, especially when the disseminated to the liver; survival time of approximately 9 months can be expected.

Recent preclinical and clinical studies that have demonstrated antitumor activity of high-dose recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2), and animal models that demonstrated a synergistic effect of low-dose cyclophosphamide, led us to study rIL-2 (Cetus Corp., Emeryville, Calif) in a phase II clinical trial in combination with low-dose cyclophosphamide in 32 patients, 18 with malignant melanoma and 14 with renal cell carcinoma. rIL-2 was given once daily at 3 x 10(6) U/m2, as a 30-min infusion for 14 days in cycle I and for 2 x 5 days in cycles II and III respectively; if tolerated, the dose was increased to a maximum of 6 x 10(6) U m-2 day-1; the cycles, separated by 1 week treatment-free intervals, were preceded each by a single i.v. bolus of cyclophosphamide at 350 mg/m2. The most prominent side-effects encountered in this trial consisted of a capillary leak syndrome, myalgia and fever that required dose reduction during the first cycle in one-half of the patients. Given the limit of tolerable toxicities in a standard care unit, the regimen employed achieved minor antitumor activity. No remission was achieved in patients with renal cell carcinoma, and 15% of melanoma patients showed objective responses (partial response + minor response).

Pathological findings in 41 patients (male/female ratio: 1.3/1) with primary localized gastric non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were retrospectively studied and correlated with survival. The median observation period after diagnosis was 32 (0-189) months. Nineteen patients were low-grade NHL, all but one B-cell lymphomas of the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) type. Twenty-two patients had primary (n = 7) or secondary (n = 15) high-grade lymphomas; Musshoff stage IE was found in 29 and IIE in 12 cases. The median age at diagnosis was 61 years (range, 26-88 years), and proliferation, measured by the number of mitosis and Ki-67 antigen positivity (MIB-1), was high or moderately high in 24 cases and low in 17 cases. Follicular lymphatic hyperplasia could be found in 25 of 34 evaluable cases, more often in low-grade than in high-grade NHL. Most of the patients were treated by resective surgery and additional ratio- or chemotherapy. Thirteen patients (31%) died (median survival: 10 months), 5 of them within 3 months after surgery owing to postoperative complications. Survival was superior, though not statistically significant, in low-grade lymphomas. Our retrospective analysis of heterogeneously treated gastric lymphomas reveals that gastric lymphomas, especially of the low-grade MALT type, often remain a localized disease with a good long-term prognosis. Our study confirms previous reports indicating that lymphomas of the MALT type represent a specific clinicopathological entity.