Melanosis of the prostate in an elderly patient--a case report

A case of melanosis of the prostate in an 85 year old Libyan patient is reported. This rare lesion is the first incidence from our area. The occurrence of melanin pigment in the prostate is extremely rare. After the initial report by Nigogosyan and co-workers in 1963, Ro et al in their review have analysed 23 documented lesions in which melanin pigment was confined to melanocytes in the stroma of the prostate only (blue nevus of the prostate), melanin pigment was present in both the stromal melanocytes and glandular epithelium (melanosis of the prostate) and lessions in which the pigment was observed in both normal and neoplastic epithelium. Later Lew et al reported another case of blue nevus of the prostate. However, reports of melanosis of the prostate are less frequent than blue nevus of the prostate. Melanosis of the prostate has not been reported from the African continent and from the Arab population according to the accessible English literature. Here we present the first case of melanosis of the prostate in an 85 year old Libyan Arab bringing the total number of melanosis of the prostate to nine.