Eccrine porocarcinoma (EPC) is a rare type of skin cancer arising from the intraepidermal portion of eccrine sweat glands or acrosyringium, representing 0.005-0.01% of all cutaneous tumors. About 20% of EPC will recur and about 20% will metastasize to regional lymph nodes. There is a mortality rate of 67% in patients with lymph node metastases. Although rare, the occurrence of distant metastases has been reported.We report a case of patient with EPC of the left arm, with axillary nodal involvement and subsequent local relapse, treated by complete lymph node dissection and electrochemotherapy (ECT).EPC is an unusual tumor to diagnose. Neither chemotherapy nor radiation therapy has been proven to be of clinical benefit in treating metastatic disease. Although in the current case the short follow-up period is a limitation, we consider in the management of EPC a therapeutic approach involving surgery and ECT, because of its aggressive potential for loregional metastatic spread.

8508 Background: Active specific immunotherapy with BCG and an allogeneic, melanoma cell vaccine can induce antibody and T-lymphocyte immune responses to numerous antigens expressed by melanoma cells. This study compared overall and disease-free survival in patients receiving BCG plus placebo versus BCG plus MCV. Methods: Between June 1998 and November 2005, 1,656 patients without evidence of residual disease after resection of stage III (n = 1,160) or stage IV (n = 496) melanoma were randomly assigned to the two treatment arms (1:1). BCG was given as an immunologic adjuvant for the first two injections of both MCV and placebo, which thereafter were administered by intradermal injection every two weeks for the next three injections, every month for the remainder of the first year, every two months for the second year and every three months for years three, four and five. Results: Based on the recommendation of the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), both studies were terminated after the interim analysis. The recommendation was based on a low probability of demonstrating significant improvement in survival of the BCG plus MCV arm if the study had continued to completion of follow-up and final analysis. Conclusions: This is the largest multicenter clinical trial of postoperative adjuvant immunotherapy after resection of melanoma metastatic to regional lymph nodes or distant sites. It is a landmark study not only because it represents the first randomized multicenter trial to use surgical resection as initial therapy for stage IV melanoma patients with up to five metastatic sites, but also because its results demonstrate excellent survival for the entire study population with 42.3% of stage IV and 63.4% of stage III patients projected to be alive at five years. Updated data for survival and immunologic endpoints which show a significant correlation between immune responses and survival will be provided at the meeting. [Table: see text]

To evaluate the role of epiluminescence microscopy (ELM) in the differential diagnosis of cutaneous pigmented lesions, and to improve the early diagnosis of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), 15,719 pigmented lesions from 8782 consecutive patients were evaluated using ELM with a hand-held video microscope imaging system (MS 500B Micro-Scopeman, Moritex). Comparison between risk levels as inferred from ELM screening and histology was performed on 2731 surgically excised lesions. ELM sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, as well as agreement with histological results for the different subgroups of lesions, were determined. Overall agreement was 87.3% (ranging from 85.1% to 92.2% for melanocytic and non-melanocytic lesions, respectively); sensitivity and specificity were high (values ranging from 87.3% to 96.3% among different subsets of ELM-analysed lesions) and statistically significant (P < 0.0001). ELM screening identified 165 new cases of CMM with a high proportion of lesions (115; 70%) in an early phase of tumour growth (Breslow thickness

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Background: Only 2% to 4% of patients with melanoma will be diagnosed with gastrointestinal metastasis during the course of their disease. The most common sites of gastrointestinal metastases from melanoma include the small bowel (35%-67%), colon (9%-15%) and stomach (5%-7%), with a median survival of 6-10 months after surgery, and 18% survival at five years. Metastatic melanoma to the gallbladder is extremely rare and it is associated with a very poor prognosis.