Loading
5 slides generated from the cancer page, with a quiz from the open benchmark and speaker notes that cite the sources. Arrow keys move between slides; Print gives one slide per page.
Vaginal melanoma is a very rare, aggressive melanoma of the vaginal lining in older women, usually found late because it is hidden, with the worst outlook of any melanoma site. It is treated with surgery where the tumour can be removed and radiotherapy where it cannot; advanced disease gets the drugs used for mucosal melanoma. Unlike skin melanoma it is as common in black as in white women.
Vaginal melanoma is a mucosal melanoma listed among the vaginal tumours in the WHO female genital classification and among the vaginal cancer page's types. In SEER data for 1992 to 2005, 125 vaginal melanomas were recorded against 324 vulvar, with age-adjusted incidence of vulvar and vaginal melanoma per million women of 0.87 in black, 0.75 in American Indian, 1.03 in Asian and Pacific Islander, 1.22 in Hispanic and 1.90 in non-Hispanic white women, and a vaginal white to black ratio of 1.02 to 1 (Melanoma Research 2010). Molecular profiling of 14 vaginal and 37 vulvar melanomas found BRAF mutations in 26 percent of vulvovaginal melanomas, more than in other mucosal melanomas, and other targetable alterations (Cancer 2017).
How it differs from its parent: it is not an HPV-associated carcinoma, so the vaginal cancer page's squamous and adenocarcinoma pathways do not apply; it presents with bleeding or a mass in the lower third of the vagina, spreads early to nodes, lung and liver, and has a five-year survival below that of vulvar melanoma in the literature the sources cite.
| Setting | Approach | Guideline |
|---|---|---|
| All stages | Excision or radical surgery where feasible, radiotherapy as an alternative or adjunct; systemic therapy as on the mucosal melanoma page; trials recommended. | not mapped |