Imediata recorrência local e regional após excisão de melanoma polipoide : dormência tumoral ou ativação tumoral? Immediate local and regional recurrence after the excision of a polypoid melanoma: tumor dormancy or tumor activation? De Giorgi V1, Massi D, Gerlini G, Mannone F, Quercioli E, Carli P. Dermatol Surg. 2003 Jun;29(6):664-7. Author information 1 Department of Dermatology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy. [email protected] Abstract Recurrent melanoma occurs in approximately one third of the patients who are treated for cutaneous melanoma. Although the majority of recurrences occur within the first few years of primary therapy, a significant number remain at risk beyond 10 years. Tumor dormancy provides the conceptual framework to explain a prolonged quiescent state in which tumor cells are present, but tumor progression is not clinically apparent. Surgery, or other perturbing factors, might modulate the transition of dormant cancer cells to rapidly growing ones. These may be due to a perturbation of the mechanisms of tumor regulation such as local immunity or angiogenesis. Here, the case of a woman is discussed in whom the surgical removal of a polypoid melanoma was followed, in less than a month, by local recurrence and locoregional lymph nodal metastases, which were previously clinically absent. PMID:12786716