Primary mucosal melanoma: A case report

Malignant melanoma is an aggressive malignancy of melanocytes affecting both skin and mucosa. Primary oral melanoma occurs 0.2-8% of all melanomas and accounts for 0.5% of all oral malignancies. Oral mucosal melanoma is different from cutaneous melanoma because of different etiology, genetic alteration and prognosis. We present a case of primary mucosal melanoma in a 33 years old man with the previous report of peripheral giant cell granuloma in the same site. The patient died less than one year because of numerous distant metastases. We suggest early diagnosis of oral melanoma can improve survival rate of the patients such as other primary oral malignancy