title: Orbital involvement with desmoplastic melanoma.
abstract: A 79-year-old woman developed an orbital mass five and a half years after excision of a cutaneous melanoma from the side of the nose. The initial orbital biopsy was interpreted histopathologically as a malignant fibrous histiocytoma, but special stains and electron microscopy showed it to be a desmoplastic malignant melanoma which had apparently spread to the orbit from the prior skin lesion by neurotropic mechanisms. The occurrence of a desmoplastic neurotropic melanoma in the orbit has not been previously recognised. The problems in the clinical and pathological diagnosis of this rare type of melanoma are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009915:Orbit / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009918:Orbital Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed