title: Malignant melanoma metastasizing to the uterus in a patient with atypical postmenopause metrorrhagia. A case report.
abstract: The uterine metastases of melanoma are very rare. At the present time, only one case occurred in our department.
  
  
  METHODS
  a 54-year-old plurigravid woman showed a metrorrhagia of unknown origin. The patient underwent a diagnostic hysteroscopy and an endometrial biopsy, in order to investigate the symptomatic postmenopausal bleeding and exclude a neoplasia, such as the endometrial carcinoma. The patient was discharged with a diagnosis of uterine fibromatosis and called back to go through a complete laparoscopic hysterectomy and bilateral adnexectomy. During the operation, some metastases were found in the genital tract. An accurate physical examination allowed us to discover a cutaneous nevus, the excision and histology of which revealed its malignancy. The immunohistochemistry of the surgical sample was able to confirm the hypothesized relationship between the nevus and the metastases, thus leading to the diagnosis of malignant melanoma metastases, genital tract. It is important to make an accurate diagnostic passage to exclude tumoral pathology in patients with atypical uterine bleeding. Every uterine bleeding of the postmenopausal period (abnormal uterine bleeding, AUB) is considered atypical and it has to be early investigated, in order to exclude any endometrial cancer. The nature of the uterine bleedings can be ascribed to atrophy, dysfunctional matters (dysfunctional uterine bleeding, DBU), benign organic alterations, only in 7-10% of cases to endometrial cancer and more rarely to metastatic tumours, as well as this case of melanoma. Physicians should be aware of such unusual possibilities in order to look carefully for metastatic implants in adenomyomas.
authors.affiliation: serena_simeone@yahoo.it
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Simeone
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Laterza
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scaravilli
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Capuano
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Serao
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Orabona
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Balbi
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy / Q000379:methods; D015907:Hysteroscopy / Q000379:methods; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008545:Melanoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D008796:Metrorrhagia / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome