Melanoma

Genital melanoma is a malignant tumor that originates from the melanocytes of the mucous membranes and the hairy skin of the genital area. In the latter case, it is mostly described together with mucosal melanoma due to its sun shielded location and continuity with mucosa which covers most of the genital area. The female genital tract accounts for 18% of all mucosal melanomas and vulvar melanoma is the second most common malignancy of the vulva, after squamous cell carcinoma. However, it is estimated that about a fifth of mucosal melanomas are amelanotic, which makes the diagnosis even more difficult. Dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy are widely used non-invasive imaging techniques to help the clinical diagnosis of skin melanoma, but their diagnostic performance for mucosal melanoma is well established. One of the main dermoscopic features of genital melanoma is the presence of multiple colors, being blue, gray, and white the most frequent.