[Primary metastatic urethral melanoma: a case study].

Purpose: Primary urethral melanoma is a rare pathology for which treatment strategies are controversial. The aim of this work was to report a case of metastatic primary urethral melanoma, and to discuss recent data available from literature.
Material and Method: Case study was summarized from the patient's medical chart. Review of literature was performed using the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database.
Results: We reported the case of an 89-year-old woman who died from a primary metastatic melanoma of the urethra. This pathology encounters for less than 1% of melanomas and has an adverse prognosis. In case of metastasis, specific survival is only of a few months. When localized to the urethra, treatment relies on radical urethrectomy, followed by adjuvant chemo- and immunotherapy.
Conclusions: The modalities of treatment of primary urethral melanoma rely only on reported case studies. When diagnosed at the metastatic stage, reported specific survival does not exceed a few months.
(Copyright 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)