Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Case Study
  • Published:

Complete response of stage IV anal mucosal melanoma expressing KIT Val560Asp to the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib

Abstract

Background A 79-year-old man presented to his primary care physician with a 2-month history of pruritus ani and a pigmented nodular lesion was discovered in the posterior rectum. The patient had no other symptoms, or any family history of malignancy.

Investigations Physical examination; excisional biopsy; CT scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis; lung biopsy; blood tests; tumor immunohistochemistry for KIT, vascular endothelial growth factor platelet-derived growth factor receptor α and β, and mismatch-repair proteins MLH1, MSH2, and MSH6; and KIT and BRAF tumor genotyping.

Diagnosis Stage IV M1b metastatic anal mucosal melanoma.

Management Wide local excision with mucosal advancement of the rectal wall, external-beam radiation, and sorafenib–temozolomide therapy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Hematoxylin and eosin and immunohistochemical staining (inset) of the patient's primary tumor.
Figure 2: Sequence analysis of KIT from the patient's tumor DNA.
Figure 3: CT scan of the patient's chest before and after sorafenib and temozolomide therapy.

References

  1. Weinstock MA (1993) Epidemiology and prognosis of anorectal melanoma. Gastroenterology 104: 174–178

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Thibault C et al. (1997) Anorectal melanoma: an incurable disease? Dis Colon Rectum 40: 661–668

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Sheffield MV et al. (2002) Comparison of five antibodies as markers in the diagnosis of melanoma in cytologic preparations. Am J Clin Pathol 118: 930–936

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ballo MT et al. (2002) Sphincter-sparing local excision and adjuvant radiation for anal-rectal melanoma. J Clin Oncol 20: 4555–4558

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kim KB et al. (2004) Biochemotherapy in patients with metastatic anorectal mucosal melanoma. Cancer 100: 1478–1483

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Antonescu CR et al. (2007) L576 KIT mutation in anal melanomas correlates with KIT protein expression and is sensitive to specific kinase inhibition. Int J Cancer 121: 257–264

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Curtin JA et al. (2006) Somatic activation of KIT in distinct subtypes of melanoma. J Clin Oncol 24: 4340–4346

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Willmore-Payne C et al.(2005) Human malignant melanoma: detection of BRAF-and c-kit-activating mutations by high-resolution amplicon melting analysis. Hum Pathol 36: 486–493

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Went PT et al. (2004) Prevalence of KIT expression in human tumors. J Clin Oncol 22: 4514–4522

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Steigen SE et al. (2007) Mutations in gastrointestinal stromal tumors—a population-based study from Northern Norway. APMIS 115: 289–298

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Lasota J et al. (2008) Clinicopathologic profile of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) with primary KIT exon 13 or exon 17 mutations: a multicenter study on 54 cases. Mod Pathol 21: 476–484

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Corless CL et al. (2005) PDGFRA mutations in gastrointestinal stromal tumors: frequency, spectrum and in vitro sensitivity to imatinib. J Clin Oncol 23: 5357–5364

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Wilhelm S et al. (2006) Discovery and development of sorafenib: a multikinase inhibitor for treating cancer. Nat Rev Drug Discov 5: 835–844

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Davies H et al. (2002) Mutations of the BRAF gene in human cancer. Nature 36: 949–954

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Goel VK et al. (2006) Examination of mutations in BRAF, NRAS, and PTEN in primary cutaneous melanoma. J Inest Dermatol 126: 154–160

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Flaherty KT et al. (2008) A phase I trial of the oral, multikinase inhibitor sorafenib in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel. Clin Cancer Res 14: 4836–4842

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Middleton MR et al. (2000) Randomized phase III study of temozolamide versus dacarbazine in the treatment of patients with advanced metastatic malignant melanoma. J Clin Oncol 18: 158–166

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Catalogue of somatic mutations in cancer site [http://www.sanger.ac.uk/genetics/CGP/cosmic/] (accessed 24 July 2008)

Download references

Acknowledgements

Charles P Vega, University of California, Irvine, CA, is the author of and is solely responsible for the content of the learning objectives, questions and answers of the Medscape-accredited continuing medical education activity associated with this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick Hwu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Quintás-Cardama, A., Lazar, A., Woodman, S. et al. Complete response of stage IV anal mucosal melanoma expressing KIT Val560Asp to the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 5, 737–740 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc1251

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc1251

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing