Malignant ovarian melanoma with extensive pelvic and peritoneal metastasis: a case report and literature review.

Received: 2009­08­31; Accepted: 2010­02­08 Primary malignant ovarian melanoma, which is primarily transformed from ovarian mature teratoma, is rare [1,2] . Each component of ovarian mature teratoma can be transformed to malignant tumor, with the squamous carcinoma as the most common type accounting for about 80% , followed by adenocarcinoma , and those transformed to melanoma are rare [3] . We reported a case of teratoma­transformed malignant ovarian melanoma with extensive pelvic and peritoneal metastasis. This patient had teratoma involving bilateral ovaries, with one side transformed to malignant ovarian melanoma. By reviewing the literature, we discussed the pathogenesis, clinicopathologic features, differential diagnosis and treatment of teratoma­transformed malignant ovarian melanoma.