Primary cerebral malignant melanoma

Abstract

Primary intracranial melanomas are uncommon and constitute approximately 1% of all melanoma cases and 0.07% of all brain tumors. In nature, these primary melanomas are very aggressive and can spread to other organs.We report an uncommon case of primary cerebral malignant melanoma—a challenging diagnosis guided by clinical presentations, radiological features, and surgical biopsy results, aiming to emphasize the importance of considering primary melanoma when making differential diagnoses of intracranial lesions.We present a rare case of a primary cerebral melanoma in the left temporal lobe. The mass appeared iso-hypodense on brain computed tomography (CT), short signal on T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (T1WI) and long signal on T2WI. It was not easy to make an accurate diagnosis before surgery. We showed the patient's disease course and reviewed related literatures, for readers’ reference. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. Because of this, there is no need to conduct special ethic review and the ethical approval is not necessary.After surgery, the pathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of melanoma. The patient was discharged without any complications and went on to receive adjuvant radiochemotherapy.It is difficult to diagnose primary cerebral melanoma in the absence of any cutaneous melanosis. A high index of clinical suspicion along with good pathology reporting is the key in diagnosing these extremely rare tumors.

Primary Brain Melanoma in a Pediatric Patient: A Case Report

“…The prognosis also varies and there have been mixed outcomes reported in the literature as well as use of different treatment regimens. The mainstays of treatment for intraparenchymal melanotic tumors are complete resection and postoperative chemoradiotherapy, which result in a survival of up to 17 years in adults [ 2 ]. In contrast, the prognosis is poor in pediatric patients, with a median survival of 8 months after presentation [ 8 ].…”

“…In contrast, the prognosis is poor in pediatric patients, with a median survival of 8 months after presentation [ 8 ]. The importance of recognizing this entity as part of our diagnostic repertoire is that the outcome also varies when compared to metastatic melanoma, which carries a survival rate of 5 to 6 months [ 2 ].…”

“…Melanocytes are naturally found in the leptomeninges, and thus, melanoma would be expected to occur in any tissue within the central nervous system (CNS) where leptomeningeal tissue is present [ 2 ]. Nevertheless, this is not the case and primary melanomas continue to be rare.…”

Immediate Postoperative Coagulopathy Predicts the Long-term Survival of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients: a Retrospective Cohort Study

“…Studies have shown that trauma-induced coagulopathy is common in TBI patients [8][9][10] and the incidence of coagulation disorders has substantial heterogeneity, ranging from 7-54% [11,12]. Reasons for this variation include different techniques and de nitions used, the heterogeneity of the patients and the various testing times [13]. Secondary coagulopathy after TBI represent an important factor for unfavorable prognosis [14,15], resulting in a nine-fold higher risk of death and a 30-fold higher risk of poor prognosis than that in TBI patients without secondary coagulation disorders [7,9,16].…”

Comprehensive Survey of Clinical Trials Registration for Melanoma Immunotherapy in the ClinicalTrials.gov

“…Melanoma is a malignant tumor originating from melanocytes and often occurs in the skin, uvea, oral cavity, intracranial, etc. (Smith et al, 2016;Tang et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2018). According to the global cancer statistics in 2018, there are more than 280,000 new cases of melanoma of skin worldwide, accounting for 1.6% of new cancer cases; and more than 60,000 cases of melanoma deaths worldwide, accounting for 0.6% of total cancer deaths (Bray et al, 2018).…”