MALIGNANT MUCOSAL MELANOMA OF THE HEAD AND NECK: A RARE ENTITY

While mucosal-based melanomas of the head and neck region are uncommon lesions, when they do arise, they usually exhibit a highly aggressive clinical course. Experience with these tumors is, limited; as such, well worked out treatment protocols for the treat- ment of such lesions are in short supply. It appears as though mucosal melanomas (MuMs) develop more frequently in the nasal cavity and paranasal sinus region, and less often in the oral cavity. The incidence of nodal metastasis seems to be significantly lower in si- nonasal MuMs than it is in MuMs of the oral cavity; this observation may be useful in evalu- ating whether a neck dissection is necessary to determine the location of the primary MuM.