Prognostic information is helpful for individual patients affected by melanoma to understand their likely clinical outcome. However, it is also important for clinicians to assist them in making management decisions and for the design, conduct, eligibility, and analysis of clinical…
Most patients with primary cutaneous melanoma will be cured by surgery. However, metastatic disease develops in approximately 15% to 30% of patients. Most metastases manifest after the diagnosis of the primary melanoma, usually within less than 3 years, rarely up…
The presence of benign melanocytes within lymph nodes was first reported by Stewart and Copeland. The frequency of their detection in lymph nodes ranges from less than 1% to up to 25% in some studies. It is likely that this…
The purpose of this chapter is to present unusual morphologic variants of primary cutaneous melanomas, which are not the subject of specific chapters elsewhere in the book. The main value of mentioning and describing these variants is for the practicing…
General Comments Melanocytic lesions of acral skin are at particular risk of being misdiagnosed for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, acral melanoma (AM) may have very subtle histologic features, particularly in the early in situ stage and…
Combined melanocytic nevi are benign melanocytic proliferations with two (or more) histopathologic nevus phenotypes in the same clinical lesion. Their clinical importance lies in the diagnostic pitfall they pose—their possible confusion with melanoma. Knowledge of the clinical and histopathologic spectrum…
The so-called deep penetrating nevus (DPN) is a variant of a benign melanocytic nevus. It is composed of distinctive pigmented spindled, ovoid, or occasionally epithelioid melanocytes with a characteristically inverted triangle-like downward architecture. Its clinical significance lies in the potential…
Tumors metastatic to skin are clinically important because they may represent the first manifestation of an unrecognized internal malignancy or the first evidence of recurrence of a previously treated primary tumor. It is critical to recognize that the tumor is…