Malignant melanoma accounts for 75% of all skin cancer deaths and is potentially curable if identified early. Although melanoma is rare in African-Americans (AA), it is associated with a worse prognosis than in Caucasians. This study examines the demographic, pathologic, and clinical factors impacting AA melanoma outcomes.Data for 1106 AA and 212,721 Caucasian cutaneous melanoma patients were a...

Malignant melanoma mainly arises in the skin. It represents the leading cause of death from cutaneous malignancy in the United States today.1,2 Fewer than 1% of all reported primary melanomas arise in the oral cavity.3,4 The cutaneous form of this lesion normally is highly visible, with irregular borders and dark pigmentation. However, mucosal melanomas may present a diagnostic challenge for th...

The incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing every year. Revealing melanoma in situ on time is increasing good prognosis of these patients. To evaluate the role of digital epiluminescence microscopy (DELM) in the differential diagnosis of cutaneous pigmented lesions and to improve the early diagnosis of melanoma in situ, 8384 pigmented lesions from 3927 consecutive patients were evaluated ...

BACKGROUND This study was conducted to clarify the frequency of the BRAF mutation in primary melanomas and its correlation with clinicopathologic parameters. METHODS We analyzed the frequency of BRAF mutation in patients with primary cutaneous melanoma (n=58) or non-cutaneous one (n=27) by performing dual priming oligonucleotide-based multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction to isolate a...

Cutaneous malignant melanoma is an aggressive disease of poor prognosis. Clinical and experimental studies have provided major insight into the pathogenesis of the disease, including the functional interaction between melanoma cells and surrounding keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and immune cells. Nevertheless, patients with metastasized melanoma have a very poor prognosis and are largely refractor...

BACKGROUND Primary melanoma of the female genital system are extremely rare (2-3%). PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective review was undertaken of patients with primary melanoma of the female genital system treated from 1990-2003 at Rostock University Hospital, Germany. Different treatments (sentinel node biopsy, inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy, en bloc resection, adjuvant Interferon-alpha-ther...

Although rare, uveal melanoma is the most common primary intraocular malignant tumor in adults. Over the past 50 years, the incidence in North America has been stable, with 4.3 per million (or about 1,500 cases per year) being newly diagnosed (Sato, Han, & Yamamoto, 2008). Uveal melanoma differs from cutaneous melanoma in a variety of ways, such as primary treatment, metastatic pattern, and ove...

The molecular and genetic events that contribute to the genesis and progression of cutaneous malignant melanoma are poorly understood, attributable in large part to the different genetic alterations accompanying tumorigenesis. Inhibitor of kinase 4a (INK4a) is often inactivated in families with hereditary melanoma. Loss of INK4a/alternate reading frame (ARF) in mice is associated with increased...