Metastatic malignant melanoma in bone marrow with occult primary site- A case report with review of literature

Abstract

Background: Metastases of malignant melanoma to the bone marrow are very rare. A few case reports are published in the literature with a known primary site.

Amelanotic Malignant Melanoma of Unknown Primary Origin Metastasizing to the Bone Marrow: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

“…The histopathological findings of MUP suggest that the tumor cells are comprised of polygonal or spindle cells with prominent nucleoli (2). On the other hand, they may also exhibit varying cellular morphology with high-grade anaplastic cellular features (10).…”

“…Furthermore, some malignant melanomas are "amelanotic," meaning that they do not contain histopathologically detectable melanin pigment, which often makes diagnosing MUP difficult (2,3). We herein report a case of bone marrow metastasis of amelanotic MUP and describe the usefulness of flow cytometric analyses for diagnosing this disease, with a review of the literature.…”

Amelanotic malignant melanoma mimicking hemangioma of the hand: One case report and literature review

“…MM grows rapidly and is prone to metastasis at an early stage of disease. Metastasis is not limited to regional lymph nodes, but also occurs in the gastrointestinal tract, the lungs, the brain, the paratesticular, the bone marrow and virtually any other site that can be seeded by the hematogenous route [13][14][15][16][17][18] . The overall prognosis for patients with metastatic MM remains poor.…”

Ovarian malignant melanoma presenting with hypercalcemia and bone marrow infiltration: a case report and review of the literature

“…7 There are a number of reports of malignant melanoma showing infiltration of marrow. [7][8][9][22][23][24] Bone marrow involvement is not common in malignant melanoma cases. Although cases of nondermal malignant melanoma associated with bone marrow infiltration have been described in the literature, [10][11][12][13][14] there were no reports of primary ovarian malignant melanoma cases in whom bone marrow involvement was identified.…”

“…In most of the patients, death occurs despite chemotherapy. 9 Bone marrow involvement from retroperitoneal, anal, tonsillar, nasal, osseous and ocular melanoma has been described. [10][11][12][13][14] There were no reports in the literature describing association of primary ovarian malignant melanoma and bone marrow metastasis.…”