C. Rossetti et al., PRIMARY ANORECTAL MELANOMAS - AN INSTITUTIONAL EXPERIENCE, Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research, 16(1), 1997, pp. 81-85
Primary melanomas (M) of the rectum and anal canal are a rare patholog
ical event, constituting approximately 1% of all invasive tumors in th
is site. From January 1973 to December 1990 at the Istituto Nazionale
per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori of Milan, 11 patients were treated
for M (5 males and 6 females), with a mean age of 60 years (range 40-8
0). The site of origin of the M was rectal in four patients, anal in f
ive patients and in the anorectal joint in two patients. The lesion wa
s prevalently polypoid and the average size was 4 cm (1-7.5 cm). Sympt
oms referred by the patients were rectal bleeding and tenesmus. In one
patient the diagnosis was made after biopsy of an inguinal metastatic
lymphnode. Of the II patients, six underwent curative resection (four
Miles' resections and two local excisions). One patient is still aliv
e with no evidence of disease after 120 months. The remaining five pat
ients were submitted to palliative treatment, due to the presence of m
etastases in four of them and to age and general conditions in one. Al
l of these patients died at 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 months (median: 4 months
). Overall median survival was eight months: 20 months in the radicall
y treated group and four months in the palliatively treated group. Our
data are in agreement with those reported in literature and confirm t
he prognostic severity of anorectal M due both to late diagnosis and t
he biological aggressiveness of the neoplasm.