Melanoma of the Oral Cavity: About Two Cases and Review of Literature

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;"> <span lang="EN-US">Mucosal malignant melanoma of the oral cavity is an extremely rare condition. It has a poor prognosis. Here we report two typical cases of malignant melanoma. In the first case, 64 years old man developed an exophytic tumor in the hard palate.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">Head and neck and chest computerized tomography scan showed a large aggressive tumor of the hard palate. The patient also had multiple lung metastases and a cervical lymph node. The second case is a 73 years old woman pre</span><span lang="EN-US">senting a burgeoning mass on the right palate. Facial CT reveals a malignant tumor lateralized in the right palate with ipsilateral metastatic lymph nodes.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">Histological with immunohistochemical studies assigned both cases to a malignant melanoma. Due to the rarity of oral malignant melanomas, case reports are a necessary source of information.</span> </p

Prevalence of malignant melanoma in anatomical sites of the oral cavity: A meta-analysis

“…Other than palate and gingiva, mandible, maxilla, tongue and buccal mucosa are the most prominent sites for metastatic melanoma;[ 24 ] however, the prevalence of patients presenting with malignant melanoma in these sites is low in our analysis. In our meta-analysis, the overall prevalence of patients with buccal mucosal melanoma (4.38%) was less than that reported in the literature, i.e., 7%.…”