Malignant melanoma of nasal cavity: report of 16 Japanese patients

Background: Primary malignant melanoma of the nasal cavity is a rare disease that has a poor prognosis. There are significant racial differences in the incidence of melanomas in the nasal cavity. Methods: Sixteen Japanese patients treated at the Hospital of Tokyo University were reviewed retrospectively. Results: Fourteen patients were treated with surgery. Two patients received treatment with radiotherapy alone. Seven patients had microscopically negative surgical margins and seven patients had positive surgical margins. The 2- and 5-year actuarial survival rates for all patients were 63.6 and 31.8%, respectively. No statistically significant difference could be shown in the overall survival rate between patients with positive surgical margins and those with negative surgical margins. Conclusions: Clinical features of nasal melanoma in Japanese are not different from nasal melanoma in Caucasians. The negative surgical margins were not predictive of a better prognosis.