Korean J Dermatol.
2008 Aug;46(8):1078-1082.
Two Cases of Vulvar Melanoma
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea. ckoh@pusan.ac.kr
Abstract
- Vulvar melanoma is the second most common vulvar malignancy but occupies less than 1% of all melanomas. It occurs predominantly in the fifth to eighth decades of life and the most common presentation is a vulvar mass or lump, although pruritus and bleeding are also frequent. Vulvar melanoma usually shows deep infiltratition earlier than cutaneous melanoma due to abundant lymphatic channels and blood vascularization, and so its prognosis is mostly poor. Depth of invasion has been reported as the single most important indicator of prognosis. Previously the treatment of choice for vulvar melanoma has been radical vulvectomy with bilateral inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy but recently there have been reports suggesting that a comparable survival rate may be achieved by local wide excision. We herein report two cases of vulvar melanoma presented in labia minora with a brief review of the literature.
