Rare and extensive malignant melanoma of the oral cavity: report of two cases

Primary oral melanomas are uncommon malignant neoplasm of melanocytes origin. The most common site of oral melanoma is maxillary gingiva and hard palate. Oral mucosal melanoma exhibit a pathobiological behavior and clinical features different from cutaneous melanomas. Oral melanomas are often clinically silent which may consequently result in delayed diagnosis; thus, making the prognosis extremely poor

This case report presents clinical, histopathological and immunohistochemical features of two cases of advanced oral melanoma, one pigmented or melanotic melanoma in a 46-year-old female and another amelanotic melanoma in a 59-year-old male patient, with chief complaint of swelling in oral mucosa

Most oral melanomas are usually asymptomatic lesions with quick growing. Thus, the most cases are detected in late stage of diagnosis. Early diagnosis with careful examination by dentists, and early biopsy of pigmented and suspicious non-pigmented lesions would have an imperative role in more survival rate and better prognosis

Epithelial dysplasia in oral cavity

Among oral lesions, we encounter a series of malignant epithelial lesions that go through clinical and histopathologic processes in order to be diagnosed. Identifying these processes along with the etiology knowledge of these lesions is very important in prevention and early treatments. Dysplasia is the step preceding the formation of squamous cell carcinoma in lesions which have the potential to undergo dysplasia. Identification of etiological factors, clinical and histopathologic methods has been the topic of many articles. This article, reviews various articles presenting oral cavity dysplasia, new clinical methods of identifying lesions, and the immunohistochemical research which proposes various markers for providing more precise identification of such lesions. This article also briefly analyzes new treatment methods such as tissue engineering