Objective: To review the Mayo Clinic experience with sinonasal melanoma.
Study design: Retrospective review (case series).
Subjects and methods: We identified 61 patients who had melanoma arising from the nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, or both. All were treated at our institution from 1955 through 2003. Clinical and pathologic data were summarized, and survival curves were generated.
Results: The most common symptoms at presentation were epistaxis and nasal congestion. The most common treatment was excision only (48%). The cancer-specific survival rate (ie, rate of death due to disease) was 48.9% and 22.1% at 3 and 5 years, respectively. Median time between diagnosis and death due to disease was 19 months.
Conclusion: Sinonasal melanoma is a rare but devastating disease. Wide local excision is the treatment of choice, and some patients may benefit from postoperative radiotherapy. Local recurrence and distant metastasis are common. Improved survival depends on better systemic therapies.