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Primary vaginal malignant melanoma: A rare entity with review of literature
Shailja Puri1, Sarita Asotra2
1 Consultant Pathologist, Department of Pathology, SRL Ltd, Shimla, HP, India 2 Department of Pathology, IGMC, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India
Correspondence Address:
Shailja Puri, Consultant pathologist, Department of Pathology, SRL Ltd Shimla HP, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None DOI: 10.4103/jcrt.JCRT_893_15
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Primary vaginal malignant melanoma (PVMM) is an extremely rare tumor of the female genital tract, accounting for only 3% of melanomas of the female genital tract and 0.3%–0.8% of all melanomas in females. Vaginal melanoma is a very aggressive tumor with a 5-year survival rate of 5%–25%. High incidence of recurrence, spread to regional lymph nodes, and distant metastasis are responsible for poor prognosis of PVMM. Grossly, amelanotic melanoma of the vagina may be mistaken for other primary vaginal malignancies. Differentiation of malignant melanoma from other primary vaginal melanomas is essential because of better prognosis of most of other vaginal malignancies as compared to melanoma. Despite having poor prognosis, early detection and early treatment of PVMM may improve the prognosis.
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