CASE REPORT article
Front. Ophthalmol.
Sec. Oculoplastics, Orbit and Trauma
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fopht.2025.1678987
This article is part of the Research TopicReviews In Oculoplastics, Orbit and TraumaView all articles
Metastatic Melanoma to the Orbit Masquerading as Idiopathic Orbital Inflammation Case Report
Provisionally accepted
- School of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Purpose: This case highlights an exceedingly rare presentation of secondary orbital melanoma and reviews the current literature on orbital melanoma. Case Presentation: A 39-year-old male was referred to our clinic after acute onset decreased vision and left upper eyelid ptosis. Outside hospital Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) showed an enhancing left superior orbital apex mass (Figure 1). The patient was initially treated for presumed idiopathic orbital inflammation without improvement. An orbital biopsy was performed, and pathology showed secondary malignant melanoma. Computed Tomography (CT) chest scan showed likely pulmonary metastases. Upon further questioning, the patient reported a history of an incompletely excised pigmented forearm lesion. The patient was treated systemically with nivolumab and ipilimumab. Conclusions and Importance: Despite its rarity, orbital melanoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with an orbital apex mass that does not respond to treatment for idiopathic orbital inflammation.
Keywords: Idiopathic orbital inflammation, Orbital Melanoma, primary orbitalmelanoma, secondary orbital melanoma, case report
Received: 03 Aug 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fernandes, Sharabura, Pfannenstiel and Sokol. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Joshua Fernandes, jfernandes@kumc.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.