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Vulvar and Vaginal Melanomas—The Darker Shades of Gynecological Cancers
- Source :
- Biomedicines, Vol 9, Iss 758, p 758 (2021), Biomedicines
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Melanomas of the skin are poorly circumscribed lesions, very frequently asymptomatic but unfortunately with a continuous growing incidence. In this landscape, one can distinguish melanomas originating in the mucous membranes and located in areas not exposed to the sun, namely the vulvo-vaginal melanomas. By contrast with cutaneous melanomas, the incidence of these types of melanomas is constant, being diagnosed in females in their late sixties. While hairy skin and glabrous skin melanomas of the vulva account for 5% of all cancers located in the vulva, melanomas of the vagina and urethra are particularly rare conditions. The location in areas less accessible to periodic inspection determines their diagnosis in advanced stages, often metastatic. Moreover, despite the large number of drugs newly approved in recent decades for the treatment of cutaneous melanoma, especially in the category of biological drugs, the mortality of vulvo-vaginal melanomas has remained almost constant. This, together with the absence of specific treatment guidelines due to the lack of a sufficient number of cases to conduct randomized clinical trials, makes melanomas with this localization a discouraging diagnosis, associated with a very poor prognosis. Our aim is therefore to draw attention to this oftentimes overlooked entity in order to encourage the community to employ various strategies meant to increase research in this area. By highlighting the main risk factors of vulvar and vaginal melanomas, as well as the clinical manifestations and molecular changes underlying these neoplasms, ideally novel therapeutic schemes will, in time, be brought into effect.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
QH301-705.5
medicine.medical_treatment
Medicine (miscellaneous)
Review
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Targeted therapy
Vulva
Biological drugs
030207 dermatology & venereal diseases
03 medical and health sciences
vulvar melanoma
0302 clinical medicine
medicine
melanoma treatment
Biology (General)
vaginal melanoma
business.industry
Incidence (epidemiology)
gynecological cancer
targeted therapy
Dermatology
medicine.anatomical_structure
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
Cutaneous melanoma
Vagina
Vaginal Melanoma
business
Vulvar melanoma
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 22279059
- Volume :
- 9
- Issue :
- 758
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Biomedicines
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....961c1a12ad130270fb61e7ba171f4742