Open-access article · Dermatology
Progressive vitiligo induced by recurrent melanoma
PubMed Central Open Access Subset · Retrieved 2026-10-13
AbstractA woman had undergone excision for primary melanoma of the left heel and dissection of groin lymph nodes. The recurrent tumor on the lateral left lower leg developed six months ago and the depigmented plaques spread extensively on the left lower limb. The depigmented macules were localized to the left lower limb and were not seen in other areas. Although the left groin lymph node had been dissected, the local immune environment of anti‐tumor immunity was preserved. The cause of melanoma‐associated vitiligo is regarded to be anti‐tumor autoimmune mediated, and this phenomenon is recently recognized during the therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of stage III and IV melanoma
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Reference details
- Authors
- Yasuo Nakai; Ayaka Ueki; Keiichi Yamanaka
- Journal
- Clinical Case Reports
- Publication date
- 2022-01-17
- PMCID
- PMC8762551
- PMID
- 35070306
- DOI
- 10.1002/ccr3.5290
- Article type
- research-article
- Original license statement
- © 2022 The Authors. Clinical Case Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Text presentation
- Original English abstract and narrative article text. Figures, tables, equations, supplements, and reference lists are omitted. Paragraphs and headings are reformatted; no medical summary or translation has been added. Read the source for the complete article.
Abstract
AbstractA woman had undergone excision for primary melanoma of the left heel and dissection of groin lymph nodes. The recurrent tumor on the lateral left lower leg developed six months ago and the depigmented plaques spread extensively on the left lower limb. The depigmented macules were localized to the left lower limb and were not seen in other areas. Although the left groin lymph node had been dissected, the local immune environment of anti‐tumor immunity was preserved. The cause of melanoma‐associated vitiligo is regarded to be anti‐tumor autoimmune mediated, and this phenomenon is recently recognized during the therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of stage III and IV melanoma
Abstract
The recurrence of melanoma was detected on her left lower leg, and extensively developed depigmented plaques were localized on left lower limb. Although left groin lymph node was dissected, local environment of anti‐tumor immunity was preserved.
Article text
A 77‐year‐old woman consulted to our department because of the recurrence of melanoma on her left lower leg. She had undergone local excision for melanoma of the left heel and dissection of groin lymph nodes 10 years ago, followed by five courses of anticancer therapy and additional four years of immunotherapy with IFN‐β. The tumor on the lateral left lower leg developed six months ago and was histologically recurrence. However, the depigmented plaques that had appeared and developed at the same time had spread extensively on the left lower limb. The depigmented macules were localized with the left lower limb and were not seen in other areas (Figure 1A). Although the left groin lymph node had been dissected, the local immune environment of the lower limb would be preserved. During the following two months, the depigmentation appeared around the right knee (Figure 1B). The cause of melanoma‐associated vitiligo is regarded to be anti‐tumor autoimmune mediated, ^(1) and the main effectors are cytotoxic CD8+ T cells that target melanocyte antigens responsible for melanin synthesis. ^(1) This phenomenon is recently recognized during the therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of stage III and IV melanoma. ^(2)
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
We declare no competing interests.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
NY, AU, and KY cared for the patient, wrote the manuscript. We all revised the manuscript.
ETHICAL APPROVAL
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The patient provided written informed consent to publish the case, including the publication of images. The paper is exempt from ethics committee approval as only one case was reported.
CONSENT
Written consent for publication was obtained from the patient.
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Imported open-access article text. Consult the source article for figures, tables and any supplementary material.
Source date: 2022-01-17. Retrieved: 2026-10-13. Text has been organized for reading; this import has not been independently reviewed by a clinician. It is not individualized medical advice.