title: Amelanotic melanoma masquerading as a superficial small round cell tumor: a diagnostic challenge.
abstract: Malignant melanoma poses a remarkable capacity for morphological diversity and often presents as a diagnostic challenge due to its wide clinical presentation. We present a case of a 73-year-old lady, with a large superficial ulcerative nodular mass on the flexor aspect of the right upper arm. On fine needle aspiration poorly differentiated round cell tumor was suggested, with histopathology also supporting the same diagnosis. A final diagnosis of amelanotic melanoma was given following immunohistochemical work-up using a panel of relevant markers. We are presenting this case, not only for its rare clinical presentation, but also for the diagnostic difficulties encountered by us in cytology and histopathology to reach the final diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology, Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Chikkasandra, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Archana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shetty
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology, Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Chikkasandra, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Savitha Anil
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology, Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Chikkasandra, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Geethamani
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Sapthagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Chikkasandra, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Mudasser
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rehan
keywords: Amelanotic melanoma; histopathology; immnohistochemistry; superficial small round cell tumor