Diagnosis of metastatic malignant melanoma in parotid gland

Abstract

Parotid gland is an extremely rare location for primary malignant melanoma and the majority of reported melanoma cases in parotid appear to represent metastasis from the skin of head and neck areas. We describe a rare case of a malignant melanoma of the oral cavity which had metastasized in parotid gland and we present the microscopic and immunohistochemical findings in parotid gland metastasis. Metastatic infiltrations were observed in peri- and intraparotid lymph nodes and the characteristic microscopic appearance together with the immunoreactivity of neoplastic cells for vimentin, S-100 protein and HMB-45 established the final diagnosis.