E. Brătilă, A. Dan, C. Mehedințu, R. Bohîlțea, M. Cîrstoiu, D.E. Comandașu, C. Berceanu
Rezumat: Genital melanomas are the second most common
cancers of the female external genitalia after
squamous cell carcinoma. It is a rare pathology
considering that vulvar, vaginal, and cervical
melanomas represent less than 1-3% of all melanomas
in women. Amongst these, vulvar melanoma is the
most common. The aim of this article is to present a
collection of data stated in literature about genital
malignant melanoma since the interest in this disease
has significantly increased, although, until now, there
have been few studies made about it. It is known
that melanomas arising from urogenital mucosa
have many diferrences from cutaneous melanomas,
including higher aggressiveness, worse prognosis
and, not at least, different molecular abnormalities,
such as c-KIT mutations, that modify the therapeutic
management. Most of the data regarding treatment
are assumed from cutaneous malignant melanoma,
but recent studies show that care should be taken
when applying the same conduct. Even more, the
prognosis and treatment are guided by the depth of
tumor rather than the lesion diameter, which means
that FIGO staging used for squamos cell carcinoma
has no use for this type of genital neoplasm. Cuvinte cheie: genital malignant melanoma,
staging, treatment, review.