Fine needle aspiration cytology in recurrent amelanotic melanoma:a casereport
BACKGROUND: Amelanotic melanoma can mimic a wide variety of epithelial andnonepithelial malignant tumors. Varied cytomorphology of melanoma has been described on exfoliativeand fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). We report a case of recurrent amelanotic melanoma tohighlight its varied cytomorphologic features, which may cause diagnostic problems on cytologic andon histologic examinations. CASE: A 63-year-old male presented with nodular swellings in the rightanterior chest wall, right axilla and back. A nodule in the chest had been excised 6 months earlier.Clinically, the lesion was interpreted as recurrent soft tissue sarcoma. FNAC revealed malignantcells with highly varied morphology with plasmacytoid and pleomorphic malignant cells withoccasional fibrocollagenous tissue strands showing adherent neoplastic cells. A cytologic diagnosisof pleomorphic malignant tumor was suggested, and the original histologic slides were reviewed; theyshowed a striking alveolar pattern that vaguely resembled an alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. However, onimmunohistochemistry, the tumor cells were S-100 and melan-A positive and desmin negative. A finaldiagnosis of amelanotic melanoma was made. CONCLUSION: Awareness of the highly varied cytomorphologyof amelanotic melanoma minimizes the diagnostic difficulty on fine needle aspiration smears.Suitable immunohistochemical markers are of great value in difficult situations.
Siddaraju,N Yaranal,PJ Mishra,MM Soundararaghavan,J
Department of Pathology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate MedicalEducation and Research, Pondicherry, India. rajusiddaraju@yahoo.com
Biopsy, Fine-Needle Cell Nucleus Humans Male Melanoma, Amelanotic MiddleAged
