In this week’s issue of PLOS Medicine, Jiali Han and colleagues [1] and Marina Kvaskoff and colleagues [2] describe prospective studies of melanocytic nevi and breast cancer risk among middle-aged women. Melanocytic nevi, commonly known as moles, are a heterogeneous group of benign tumors of the skin, which are commonly acquired in childhood and adolescence and which may disappear with increasi...

Epidermal nevi are common congenital skin lesions with an incidence of 1 in 1,000 people; however, their genetic basis remains elusive. Germline mutations of the FGF receptor 3 (FGFR3) cause autosomal dominant skeletal disorders such as achondroplasia and thanatophoric dysplasia, which can be associated with acanthosis nigricans of the skin. Acanthosis nigricans and common epidermal nevi of the...

BACKGROUND The incidence of cutaneous melanoma is increasing worldwide. Since it is an aggressive neoplasm, it is difficult to treat in advanced stages; early diagnosis is important to heal the patient. Melanocytic nevi are benign pigmented skin lesions while atypical nevi are associated with the risk of developing melanoma because they have a different histological pattern than common nevi. Th...

The TGF-β associated growth factor Nodal is highly expressed in aggressive metastatic melanoma. Determining the risk for melanomagenesis from Nodal expression in nevi prior to the development of melanoma may be useful for both the screening and prevention of melanoma. Tissue sections of human adult nevi with or without a history of melanoma were stained by immunohistochemistry (IHC) for Nodal, ...

The following communication summarizes the proceedings of a 1-day Workshop of the International Melanoma Pathology Study Group, which was devoted to thin melanoma. The definitions and histologic criteria for thin melanoma were reviewed. The principal differential diagnostic problems mentioned included the distinction of thin melanoma from nevi, especially from nevi of special site, irritated ne...

A survey of benign melanocytic nevi (moles), suspected precursors or markers for melanoma, was conducted in Washington State among 717 randomly selected 18- to 50-year-old white adults who participated in a telephone interview in 1990-1991. Participants were questioned about constitutional factors, time spent in the sun, and severe sunburns over three time periods and were asked to count the ra...

A 10-year-old female patient, being treated for dystrophic bullous epidermolysis in a Pediatric Hospital, was referred to our Dermoscopy Ambulatory because of a newly observed mole in the submandibular area. Clinically, the lesion presented as an irregular double-colored macule of about 2 cm in diameter, with irregular borders, suspicious of malignancy. Dermoscopy showed a multicomponent patter...

Conjunctival nevi in children and adolescents often have histologic features that can be difficult to differentiate from malignancy. We have identified a subset of childhood nevi displaying a confluent growth pattern and a lack of maturation that we have defined as juvenile conjunctival nevi (JCN), with the aim of further describing the clinicopathologic features of these lesions. Lesions ident...

Background: Raman spectroscopy is a non-invasive optical technique, which has the capability in determining the molecular structure and conformation of biochemical constitutes. Recently we developed a rapid real-time Raman spectrometer system, paving the way for clinical application of Raman spectroscopy. Hypothesis: The morphological structure and the bio-molecular constitutes have been altere...

OBJECTIVES To (1). describe nevus patterns using digital photography and dermoscopy; (2). evaluate the relationship between host and environmental factors and prevalence of nevi in schoolchildren; and (3). demonstrate the feasibility of conducting a longitudinal study. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey and 1-year prospective follow-up study. PARTICIPANTS Students from 2 classrooms, grades 6 and...