Accepted Answer

I'll do my best to get you an answer here. You are correct, malignant melanomas (particularly amelanotic ones) are very rare, and because of that there is not a lot of information to be found about them.

I can say that if surgery completely removed all of the tumor before any spread had occured, the prognosis is good. If the tumor had spread, or if another tumor appears, the prognosis is guarded. I can't speak specifically to the treatment with carboplatin. I know that this is effective in dogs, but I don't know about it's use in cats.

The only good information about the disease that I could find on the web is at the following address.
http://www.petplace.com/cats/malignant-melanoma-in-cats/page1.aspx

I would recommend that you contact the MSU veterinary hospitol. If they don't have a cancer specialist, they can direct you to an appropriate university that does, that could further answer your questions.

I hope that this has been helpful. If you have further questions, let me know, and I'll help you as best I can.

Dr. Lyle

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