[Cutaneous melanoma during pregnancy at the Cancer Center-Institute in Warsaw].

Malignant melanoma is a neoplasm which frequency has been increasing rapidly in Poland. The paper describes five cases of patients with cutaneous melanoma coexisting with pregnancy, who have been recently treated in the Department of Soft Tissue/Bone Tumors of M. Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer--Institute of Oncology, Warsaw. All patients presented clinically advanced primary lesions with poor prognosis. In paper recommendations for treatment of women with suspicious cutaneous lesions before or during pregnancy and patients with melanoma planning a pregnancy are presented. The suspicion of melanoma is indication for immediate excisional biopsy by local anesthesia. Further treatment should be performed in tertiary oncological centres. There is no evident clinical data that pregnancy has a significant impact on progression of melanoma. The most important factor influencing prognosis of melanoma is the stage of the disease at the diagnosis. There are no grounds for abortion in pregnant women with melanoma in I/II/III stages.