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Case Reports
. 2021 Apr 6;9(10):2352-2356.
doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i10.2352.

Primary intramedullary melanoma of lumbar spinal cord: A case report

Le-Dong Sun  1 , Xin Chu  1 , Li Xu  1 , Xiu-Zhen Fan  1 , Yi Qian  2 , Da-Ming Zuo  3
Affiliations
Case Reports

Primary intramedullary melanoma of lumbar spinal cord: A case report

Le-Dong Sun et al. World J Clin Cases. .

Abstract

Background: Primary intramedullary melanoma is a very rare tumor, most frequently occurring in the cervical and thoracic spinal cord.

Case summary: We present a rare case in which the primary intramedullary melanoma was located in the lumbar spine. A 56-year-old man complained of progressive intermittent pain in the lumbar area. Thoracic magnetic resonance imaging showed a spinal intramedullary tumor between the L3 and S1 levels. The tumor was resected entirely, and the diagnosis of malignant melanoma was confirmed by histopathology.

Conclusion: Primary melanoma of the spinal cord, particularly intramedullary localization, has rarely been reported in the previous literature. We describe a primary malignant melanoma of the lumbar spinal cord and discuss the challenges associated with the diagnosis.

Keywords: Case report; Histopathological examination; Immunohistochemical staining; Intramedullary melanoma; Lumbar; Magnetic resonance imaging; Spinal cord.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Magnetic resonance imaging analysis of spinal cord lesion. A: Sagittal T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); B: Sagittal T2-weighted MRI; C: Homogeneous contrast enhancement on axial T1-weighted images with gadolinium.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Histological analysis of the tumor tissue. A: Hematoxylin and eosin staining showing the tumor cells (× 200); B-G: Immunohistochemical staining for S-100, homatropine methylbromide-45, p53, vimentin, cytokeratin, and Ki67, respectively (× 400).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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