Open AccessMelanoma of the central nervous system: A report of three cases
Author(s) -
Pooja Kamlesh Gajaria,
Ashok K Shenoy,
Naina Goel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
indian journal of pathology and microbiology/indian journal of pathology and microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.217
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 0974-5130
pISSN - 0377-4929
DOI - 10.4103/ijpm.ijpm_642_20
Subject(s) - medicine , melanoma , histopathology , malignancy , central nervous system , magnetic resonance imaging , parenchyma , pathology , positron emission tomography , lesion , radiology , histopathological examination , radiation therapy , adjuvant radiotherapy , cancer research
Melanomas within the Central Nervous System (CNS) are most commonly metastatic lesions, with primary melanomas comprising only 0.05-0.07% of all brain tumors. We report three cases of primary CNS melanoma. The patients were young adults. There were two females and one male. On preoperative investigations, two cases were misdiagnosed to be angiomas on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The melanotic nature of the lesion was an intraoperative observation. Pathologic examination showed features of malignancy with invasion of tumor cells into the brain parenchyma. In two patients, presence of systemic lesions were ruled out after surgery by whole-body Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan. These patients were subject to adjuvant radiotherapy, while one patient succumbed immediately post-surgery. Primary CNS melanomas are rare with no defined treatment protocols. Histopathology diagnosis is crucial to rule out pigmented mimics.