title: Malignant melanoma of the rectum.
abstract: Malignant melanoma of the rectum is an extremely rare disease. It typically presents in the fifth or sixth decade of life with nonspecific complaints such as rectal bleeding or anal pain. A timely diagnosis of anal melanoma is made even more difficult by the fact that most of the lesions lack obvious pigmentation and are even histologically amelanotic. Prognosis is very poor. Anorectal malignant melanomas spread along submucosal planes and are often beyond complete resection at the time of diagnosis. We present the radiological and pathological features seen in a 43-year-old woman diagnosed with melanoma of the rectum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiodiagnosis, ESI model hospital, Basaidarapur, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Supreethi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kohli
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiodiagnosis, ESI model hospital, Basaidarapur, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Seema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Narang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiodiagnosis, ESI model hospital, Basaidarapur, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Anu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Singhal
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiodiagnosis, ESI model hospital, Basaidarapur, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Vinod
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, ESI model hospital, Basaidarapur, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Omkar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, ESI model hospital, Basaidarapur, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Raj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chandoke
keywords: Imaging; malignant; melanoma; rectum