Amelanotic malignant melanoma of the vagina

Malignant melanoma (MM) of the vagina is a rare tumor. It accounts for less than 1% of all MM, and less than 3% of all primary malignant tumors of the vagina (1). In a review of reported cases, Stellato et al. (2) found less than 150 cases of primary melanoma of the vagina in the literature. The histologic appearance of melanoma may be heterogeneous. In fact, especially amelanotic melanomas may be diagnosed as poorly differentiated carcinomas or sarcomas (3,4). In such cases immunohistochemical techniques (IHC) have been valuable as a diagnostic aid (1,3,5-7). In contrast with the majority of cases reported, we described here a case of amelanotic MM of the vagina diagnosed by immunohistochemistry.