{"entity":{"id":"urethral-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma of the urethra","aka":["Urethral melanoma","Primary malignant melanoma of the urethra","Urethral melanoma (very rare)","Genitourinary mucosal melanoma"],"tldr":"Melanoma of the urethra is a very rare urethral cancer that starts in pigment cells of the urethral lining, usually near its outer opening, in older adults. It is a form of mucosal melanoma, so it is removed surgically and, when it spreads, treated with the immunotherapy drugs used for melanoma elsewhere.","summary":"Primary melanoma of the urethra is a mucosal melanoma. In the series of 15 cases, the tumour involved the distal urethra in all six men and the distal urethra or meatus in eight of nine women; tumours were typically polypoid, 0.8 to 6 cm (mean 2.6 cm), every one had a vertical growth phase and the depth of invasion ranged from 2 to 17 mm (Oliva 2000). Among 11 women treated surgically at the Mayo Clinic over five decades (mean age 68), the study examined which tumour features predicted recurrence and disease-specific survival (DiMarco 2004). Men present with penile or urethral involvement and the outlook has classically been poor (Sanchez-Ortiz 2005).\n\nHow it differs from its parent: it is not a carcinoma at all, so none of the parent's bladder-cancer or anal-cancer analogies apply; staging and systemic therapy come from the mucosal melanoma page instead, and the WHO skin and genitourinary classifications treat mucosal melanoma as one entity across sites.\n\nHow common: no incidence figure is published; the case series above are the published evidence.\n\nTreatment: complete excision (partial urethrectomy or, for proximal or bulky tumours, radical surgery) as reported in the surgical series (DiMarco 2004; Sanchez-Ortiz 2005), then the mucosal melanoma page's pathway for recurrent or metastatic disease, which rests on checkpoint inhibitors (nivolumab, pembrolizumab) and KIT testing; there is no trial in urethral melanoma itself.","asOf":"2026-09-24","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucosal_melanoma","links":[{"label":"NCI PDQ: urethral cancer treatment","url":"https://www.cancer.gov/types/urethral/patient/urethral-treatment-pdq"},{"label":"Oliva 2000, Am J Surg Pathol: primary malignant melanoma of the urethra, 15 cases","url":"https://doi.org/10.1097/00000478-200006000-00003"},{"label":"DiMarco 2004, J Urol: surgical treatment of primary melanoma of the female urethra","url":"https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ju.0000104671.20863.47"},{"label":"Sanchez-Ortiz 2005, J Urol: melanoma of the penis, scrotum and male urethra","url":"https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ju.0000159207.91737.53"}],"tags":["subtype-page","wave4","rare"],"related":["urethral","mucosal-melanoma","melanoma","urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["nivolumab","pembrolizumab"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"group":"genitourinary","burden":"Very rare: the largest pathology series holds 15 cases, nine women and six men, aged 44 to 96 (mean 73) (Oliva 2000); a 40-year single-institution series found ten patients with penile or urethral melanoma (Sanchez-Ortiz 2005). No registry figure exists.","subtypes":["Melanoma of the distal urethra and meatus (the usual site)","Melanoma of the proximal urethra (rare)"],"biomarkers":["Depth of invasion and vertical growth phase","KIT, NRAS and BRAF mutation testing as in mucosal melanoma","Node status"],"standardOfCare":[{"setting":"All stages","approach":"Excision as reported in the surgical series; recurrent or metastatic disease treated as mucosal melanoma with checkpoint inhibitors.","refs":["mucosal-melanoma","nivolumab","pembrolizumab"]}],"stateOfArt":[],"history":[],"pipeline":[],"openProblems":[],"parent":"urethral"},"route":"/cancers/urethral-melanoma/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"},{"id":"mucosal-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Mucosal melanoma","route":"/cancers/mucosal-melanoma/"},{"id":"urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Squamous cell carcinoma of the urethra","route":"/cancers/urethral-squamous-cell-carcinoma/"},{"id":"urethral","kind":"cancer","name":"Urethral cancer","route":"/cancers/urethral/"},{"id":"urethral-urothelial-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Urothelial carcinoma of the urethra","route":"/cancers/urethral-urothelial-carcinoma/"},{"id":"vulvar-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Vulvar melanoma","route":"/cancers/vulvar-melanoma/"}],"drug":[{"id":"nivolumab","kind":"drug","name":"Nivolumab","route":"/drugs/nivolumab/"},{"id":"pembrolizumab","kind":"drug","name":"Pembrolizumab","route":"/drugs/pembrolizumab/"}]}}