A case of primary malignant melanoma of the œsophagus

Malignant melanoma of the oesophagus

“…We have had the opportunity, by the courtesy of Professor A. D. Morgan, of examining blocks from the case reported by Minwalla and Parry (1961). This tumour is a malignant melanoma clearly arising from a junctional type of epithelium: the adjacent epithelium shows junctional changes and the presence of numerous pigment-containing melanoblasts.…”

The Thousand Faces of Malignant Melanoma: A Systematic Review of the Primary Malignant Melanoma of the Esophagus

“…Only subsequently did the morphological finding indicate a malignant melanoma [ 7 ]. In the following years, other authors [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] reported their experience with suspected or presumed cases of PMME, even if the number of cases that could actually be considered primitive of the esophagus were even more limited than those published until then, as the Allen–Spitz diagnostic criteria [ 11 ] restricted the effective number of PMMEs to: (1) typical histologic pattern of melanoma with the presence of melanin granules within the tumor cells; (2) origin in an area of junctional change within the squamous epithelium; (3) junctional activity with melanotic cells in the adjacent epithelium). In 1957, with the paper by Keeley et al [ 12 ], this entity began to be defined as malignant melanoma of the esophagus and not with terms such as “melanocarcinoma” or “melanosarcoma” or “nevocarcinoma” or “melanoblastoma” of the esophagus [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”

“…PMME is a highly aggressive tumor that is associated with a poor prognosis, with a 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of <5% [ 5 , 6 ]. The debate on its genesis starting from the esophagus has been quite heated since it was not believed at the time of the first descriptions that there could be melanocyte cells at the esophageal mucosal level [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], and only with the first autoptic series did it begin to prove in a clear way that melanoma could also originate from this part of the body [ 20 ]. From a topographical point of view, 90% of PMME cases involve the middle/distal third of the esophagus, which is usually solitary, but in about 13% of cases it presents with multiple lesions.…”