Survival and Treatment Modalities in Primary Vaginal Melanoma—Case Report and a Narrative Review

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine Vol. 13; no. 13; p. 3771
• Main Authors: Guzik, Paweł, Łukasiewicz, Martyna, Harpula, Magdalena, Zając, Paweł, Żmuda, Marcin, Śniadecki, Marcin, Topolewski, Paweł
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 27.06.2024
• Subjects: Abdomen; adjuvant therapy; Cancer therapies; Case reports; Chemotherapy; Clinical trials; Cohort analysis; Hysterectomy; Immunotherapy; Interferon; Medical prognosis; Melanoma; Metastasis; mucosal melanoma; nivolumab; Patients; primary vaginal melanoma; Radiation therapy; Skin cancer; Surgery; Systematic review; Vagina; vaginal
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 2077-0383
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm13133771

Background/Objectives: Primary vaginal melanoma (PVM) is a rare cancer representing five percent of vaginal cancers and less than one percent of all female vaginal melanomas, with an incidence rate of 0.46 per million women per year. The aim of this study was to present a case of combined therapy and conservative surgical treatment in a young patient with PVM and to perform a systematic review of the same subject. Methods: We performed a narrative review of the literature and presented a case report. Results: The review yielded a total of 43 articles. We presented treatment modalities and survival outcomes. The presented case involved a combination of surgical treatment with adjuvant therapy comprising nivolumab and ipilimumab. Conclusions: PVM is a disease with a poor prognosis; however, new treatment options are promising and have a great chance of significantly improving survival. The combination of the wide local excision of the primary lesion followed by adjuvant therapies results in the best outcomes in the treatment of PVM. Future clinical studies are warranted to provide new evidence for the treatment outcomes of nonsurgical, metastatic PVM and the adjuvant treatment of PVM.