Primary malignant mucosal melanoma of the head and neck region: pooled analysis of 60 published cases from India and review of literature

• Published in: European journal of cancer prevention Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 3 - 10
• Main Authors: Pandey, M, Mathew, A, Iype, E M, Sebastian, P, Abraham, E K, Nair, K M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hagerstown, MD Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 01-02-2002; Lippincott Williams and Wilkins
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Disease-Free Survival; Female; Head and Neck Neoplasms - diagnosis; Head and Neck Neoplasms - epidemiology; Head and Neck Neoplasms - therapy; Humans; Incidence; India - epidemiology; Male; Medical sciences; Melanoma - diagnosis; Melanoma - epidemiology; Melanoma - therapy; Odds Ratio; Otorhinolaryngology (head neck, general aspects and miscellaneous); Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; Predictive Value of Tests; Proportional Hazards Models; REVIEW; Severity of Illness Index; Survival Rate; Tumors; Asia; India; Human; Prognosis; Mucosa; Malignant tumor; Case study; Pathology; Symptomatology; Primitive; Treatment; Malignant melanoma; Head and neck; ENT disease; Bibliographic review
• ISSN: 0959-8278; 1473-5709
• DOI: 10.1097/00008469-200202000-00002

Malignant melanoma arising in the head and neck mucosa is a rare entity with incidence ranging from 2% to 10%. Because of the lack of data, the biological behaviour of these lesions still remains unpredictable and outcome dismal. We carried out a literature review for cases of mucosal melanoma of the head and neck reported from India and performed a pooled analysis on the available data. A total of 60 cases of head and neck melanomas were reported, of which 46 were in men. Palate and alveolus were the commonest sites. A total of 29 (48.3%) patients had regional node metastasis at presentation while five (12%) had distant metastasis. Three-year overall survival of 27.7% was observed. However, the disease-free survival rates at 3, 5 and 6 years were 39.4%, 39.4% and 13.1%, respectively. Metastasis at presentation and use of adjuvant radiotherapy were found to be the only significant predictors of survival. Malignant mucosal melanoma has aggressive biological behaviour and poor outcome. Radical surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy may provide a better local control and may help in improving survival.