Discrimination of benign and malignant melanocytic lesions is a major issue in clinical dermatology. Assessment of the thickness of melanoma is critical for prognosis and treatment selection. We aimed to evaluate a novel optical computed tomography (optical-CT) system as a tool for three-dimensional (3-D) imaging of melanocytic lesions and its ability to discriminate benign from malignant melan...

BACKGROUND The number of melanocytic nevi is the best single marker of increased melanoma risk. In a previous study, adults with severe eczema were reported to have significantly fewer nevi than adults without eczema. OBSERVATIONS In a nested case-control design within a randomized, controlled interventional trial of additional sun protection vs standard care in 269 children, a history of ecz...

A cral volar skin is the most prevalent site of malignant melanoma in nonwhite populations. In 2007, our group proposed a 3-step algorithm for the management of acquired melanocytic lesions affecting acral volar skin (Figure 1). We now know that almost all acral melanomas arise de novo, not in association with a preexisting acral nevus. Given that an acral nevus has virtually no risk of develop...

Combined melanocytic nevi are composed of 2 or more distinct populations of nevomelanocytes. Most commonly used to describe the combination of blue nevi with common nevi, it may also be applied to other combinations of benign melanocytic proliferations, including Spitz nevi and nevi with deep dermal pigmented nevomelanocytes. We report the incidence and distribution of these tumors at the Massa...

erbB receptors contribute to tumor formation and progression. Variable expression of erbB1, erbB2, and erbB3 has been reported in nevi and melanomas; erbB4 has hardly been investigated. We examined the expression of all 4 erbB receptors in common and dysplastic nevi and melanomas. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues of 100 melanomas, 27 common nevi, and 23 dysplastic nevi were immunostain...

compound melanocytic naevus was made. The remaining portion of the lesion was used for transverse histological sectioning to reproduce the original dermatoscopic plan, as tissue sections were parallel to the skin surface ( fig. 2 b). The analysis of transverse sections showed several pigmented structures: types of melanin in the horny layer under the ridges, junctional and papillary nests of me...

Monitoring of atypical nevi is an important step in early detection of melanoma, a clinical imperative in preventing the disease progression. Current standard diagnosis is based on biopsy and histopathologic examination, a method that is invasive and highly dependent upon physician experience. In this work, we used a clinical multiphoton microscope to image in vivo and noninvasively melanocytic...