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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Tongue metastasis of cutaneous melanoma: Report of two cases and literature review

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Introduction Malignant metastases to the oral cavity are rare and metastatic melanomas of the tongue are considered exceptionally uncommon, with less than 10 cases published in the English literature so far. Case reports Two female patients in the 7th decade of life presented to our dental service with nodules in the tongue. Both patients had multiple metastases at the time of oral diagnosis and primary melanoma originated on the skin. An intra-oral incisional biopsy was performed under local anesthesia and the histopathologic analysis was characterized by the proliferation of atypical epithelioid cells displaying a poorly delimited cytoplasm and hyperchromatic nucleus which contained eosinophilic macronucleoli. Immunohistochemistry was performed in both cases to confirm the clinical hypothesis of metastatic melanoma. After the diagnosis of oral metastatic melanoma, the patients were maintained under palliative care and close medical follow-up. Both patients died four and a half months and 20 months after the diagnosis of tongue metastasis. Conclusions Although rare, metastatic melanoma should be included in the differential diagnosis of tongue lesions detected in patients with a previous medical history of cutaneous melanoma. Key words:Melanoma, tongue, metastases.