title: Malignant melanoma of cervix.
abstract: A 68-year-old woman presented with symptoms of bleeding per vaginum. On examination, a growth was seen in the cervix, clinically considered to be squamous cell carcinoma. The growth was confined to the cervix and did not involve the parametria. However, on biopsy it was diagnosed as malignant melanoma. She underwent surgery elsewhere and was advised chemotherapy as these tumours are aggressive; however, she refused chemotherapy. She has been on regular follow-up and has an ongoing survival and disease-free period of more than 5 years. Primary cervical malignant melanomas are very rare as compared with vulval and vaginal counterparts and should be considered in the histological differential diagnosis of poorly differentiated malignant neoplasms involving cervix. Moreover, it is important to rule out metastasis from common primary sites such as skin, oesophagus, uveal tract and anorectal region before considering diagnosis of primary cervical melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Pathology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Mayank
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D014592:Uterine Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology*