The use of sentinel lymph node biopsy for the T1 melanoma is controversial. Recent reports have demonstrated that certain T1 melanomas are at increased risk for early regional metastases and late recurrence when compared with all thin melanomas. The purpose of this study was to review the authors' experience with wide excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy for certain patients with T1 melanoma...

PURPOSE Sunlight is the principal environmental risk factor for cutaneous melanoma. A current hypothesis postulates that the role of sunlight in causing melanoma differs according to anatomic site. We tested this hypothesis in a population-based case-case comparative study of melanoma patients. METHODS Patients were sampled from the Queensland cancer registry in three groups: superficial spre...

Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) represents the most frequent type of cancers among Caucasians. Consisting basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous (SCC), which both develop in epidermis skin. The incidence NMSC has increased by 33% over past 10 years. steadily increasing number cases continue to cause burden society health care. Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease characterized white depigmented l...

Cutaneous melanoma has been classified into three distinct histological subtypes based on histopathological and clinical features. The incidence of the least common type, lentigo maligna melanoma, has been most strongly associated with chronic sunlight exposure as its cause, especially lesions presenting on the face area. The relationship of sunlight exposure to the other two major subtypes, su...

All follow up protocols for patients with malignant melanoma (MM) are oriented to early detection of metastases. As most of the relapses happened in regional lymph nodes, special attention is given to this region, using different diagnostic tools. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is generally accepted method in determining status of lymph nodes in MM patients, in their staging. This method pro...

In melanoma, the presence of promoter related hypermethylation has previously been reported, however, no methylation-based distinction has been drawn among the diverse melanoma subtypes. Here, we investigated DNA methylation changes associated with melanoma progression and links between methylation patterns and other types of somatic alterations, including the most frequent mutations and DNA co...

Sir: A total of 39 cases of primary spinal cord melanoma have been described in the English language literature, but there are only two examples 1,2 of a melanoma arising in and limited to the spinal nerve root. We present a case of primary melanoma located in a spinal root of the cauda equina which was totally intradural, a peculiarity previously unreported. A 26-year-old man with a 3-month hi...

Intermittent or recreational exposure to sunlight is thought to contribute to development of human cutaneous melanoma. We investigated the incidence of ras oncogene mutation in human cutaneous melanoma in connection to sun-exposed body sites in the patient, using a large series of DNA samples derived from paraffin-embedded material as well as from fresh tumor samples and cell lines. We first sh...

The aim of this study was to ascertain which histological types of melanoma can clinically and morphologically appear as polypoid melanomas. In 645 cases of primary cutaneous melanoma we have analyzed criteria for diagnosis of polypoid cutaneous melanoma and afterwards we have analyzed growth phase in each polypoid melanoma, histological type of atypical melanocytes, the number of epidermal rid...

We compared the sensitivity and specificity of S-100 and MIA in advanced melanoma, in 96 patients with no evidence of disease (NED) and 86 patients with metastatic melanoma. Abnormal S100 (>0.2 microg/l) and MIA (>14 ng/ml) results were found in 1.1% and 3.2% of NED patients and in 59.3% and 54.6% of the patients with active melanoma (p<0.001). Using both tumor markers simultaneously, the sensi...