Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Apr 6, 2021; 9(10): 2352-2356
Published online Apr 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i10.2352
Primary intramedullary melanoma of lumbar spinal cord: A case report
Le-Dong Sun, Xin Chu, Li Xu, Xiu-Zhen Fan, Yi Qian, Da-Ming Zuo
Le-Dong Sun, Xin Chu, Li Xu, Xiu-Zhen Fan, Department of Dermatology, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510900, Guangdong Province, China
Yi Qian, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510900, Guangdong Province, China
Da-Ming Zuo, Department of Medical Laboratory, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Sun LD and Qian Y designed the study; Chu X helped prepare the radiology images; Xu L and Fan XZ analyzed the pathology images; Zuo DM wrote the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Foundation of the President of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Southern Medical University, 2020.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: We have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yi Qian, MD, Associate Professor, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Southern Medical University, No. 566 Congcheng Avenue, Conghua District, Guangzhou 510900, Guangdong Province, China. 1328059119@qq.com
Received: November 25, 2020
Peer-review started: November 25, 2020
First decision: December 8, 2020
Revised: December 15, 2020
Accepted: December 28, 2020
Article in press: December 28, 2020
Published online: April 6, 2021
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: Intramedullary melanoma, Spinal cord, Lumbar, Magnetic resonance imaging, Histopathological examination, Immunohistochemical staining, Case report

Core Tip: We report a primary malignant melanoma of the lumbar spinal cord and emphasize the diagnostic challenge.