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Melanomas of Vulva and Vagina

*Clinical Cancer Training Fellow supported by PHS Training Grant No. TI2 CA08098-07 from the National Institutes of Health
From the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Ann Arbor, Michigan

Abstract

Clinical and pathologic findings are presented for 11 patients with female genital melanomas. At the University of Michigan Medical Center, these neoplasms account for 6% of melanomas in females, and 2% of vulvar and vaginal malignant neoplasms. Of the 8 patients with melanomas of the vulva, the disease in 6 had extended beyond the dermis (Stages II to IV); these patients died in less than 5 years. In 2 patients the disease was confined to the dermis. One patient died with melanoma in the 18th year, and the other was living and well after 3 years. The 3 patients with melanomas of the vagina died in less than 2 years. No correlation could be found between survival time and histologic type of melanoma or lymphoreticular cell response to the neoplasm. Radical surgical treatment, possibly including pelvic lymph node dissection, is still considered advisable, but early diagnosis is mandatory