ArticleJournal of neuro-oncology2025
Benign or aggressive? Understanding spinal melanocytomas in comparison to malignant melanoma.
Article in Journal of neuro-oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Spinal intramedullary melanocytoma: systematic review & clinical management considerations.Neurosurgical review · 2026Pooled it
- Intramedullary or invasive characteristics of spinal melanocytomas: a PRISMA compliant systematic review and pooled case analysis.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
21 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionSpinal melanocytic tumors are rare, with limited data on their clinical course and aggressiveness. Since intraoperative dark pigmentation and infiltrative margins can lead to misclassification of MC as MM-especially in the absence of a known primary-this multicenter study characterizes melanocytomas (MC) and contrasts them with malignant melanoma (MM).
methodsWe retrospectively analyzed 56 patients with spinal intradural melanocytic tumors (2010-2024) from seven European neurosurgical centers. Clinical, radiological, histological, and surgical features were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify prognostic risk factors.
resultsThe study included 22 patients with spinal MC and 34 patients with MM. Median age was comparable (61 vs. 58 years, p = 0.09), but MC patients had a longer symptom history (13 vs. 1.3 months, p = 0.0001) and more often intramedullary tumors (72.7% vs. 2.9%, p < 0.0001). Gross total resection was achieved in 40.9% of MC cases and 61.8% of MM cases (p = 0.07), with instrumentation required more often for MM (p = 0.0022). Ki-67 proliferation index was significantly higher in MM than MC (26.7% vs. 6.6%, p < 0.0001). Postoperative deficits were more frequent in MC (54.6% vs. 14.7%, p = 0.002) and MCs showed higher frequency of ataxia postoperatively (36.4% vs. 11.8%, p = 0.04). MM patients received more adjuvant therapy (88.2% vs. 31.8%, p = 0.0001), with a trend toward higher local recurrence (26.5% vs. 14.7%, p = 0.31).
conclusionOur study demonstrates that MC, though considered benign, carries a high risk of postoperative deficits. Furthermore, GTR was achieved in only 40% of cases, underscoring its locally infiltrative nature and potential for semi-benign biology.
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