Primary malignant melanoma of the oesophagus. Report of a case with flow cytometric DNA analysis.

Primary malignant melanoma is a very rare tumour of the oesophagus, and although this is the first case reported in a black patient in South Africa, the clinical, radiographic and histopathological features were characteristic of this malignancy. Primary oesophageal melanoma is a highly lethal tumour--fewer than 2% of patients are surviving 5 years after diagnosis. Flow cytometric DNA analysis of the resected specimen in this case revealed two populations of malignant cells, one of which had grossly abnormal DNA. Existence of two clones of malignant melanoma cells supports the observations that this tumour is biologically aggressive, radioresistant and almost always incurable.