OBJECTIVE To investigate whether Spitz nevi with typical histopathological features in older patients demonstrate chromosomal aberrations by 4-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). DESIGN Retrospective medical record review, with prospective masked histopathological and cytogenetic analyses. SETTING University-affiliated dermatology and dermatopathology setting. PATIENTS Twenty...

OBJECTIVES Melanocytic proliferations with Spitz differentiation present a difficult clinicopathologic dilemma, as their spectrum ranges from benign to malignant. Distinct entities include Spitz nevus, atypical Spitz nevus, and Spitzoid melanoma. Their histopathologic differentiation can be challenging, and cases of Spitzoid melanoma initially diagnosed as benign Spitz nevi are reported in the ...

In 1910, Darier and Civatte described in details an unusual melanocytic tumor characterized by rapid growth on the nose of a young child. They could not state whether the tumor was benign or malignant. In 1947, Sophie Spitz described the same lesion as juvenile melanoma in which prognosis was frequently excellent. Later, the study was revised and it was concluded that juvenile melanoma was a be...

IMPORTANCE Controversy exists regarding strategies for diagnosis and management of Spitz nevi, a type of melanocytic neoplasm that most often develops in children. OBJECTIVE To determine the beliefs, behaviors, and experiences of pediatric dermatologists with regard to Spitz nevi. DESIGN Anonymous web-based survey. SETTING Private and academic dermatology practices. PARTICIPANTS Respond...

378 www.thelancet.com/oncology Vol 15 April 2014 tumour is malignant melanoma. Likewise, sentinel lymphadenectomy is not useful for staging disease in the management of atypical Spitz tumours because metastases from these tumours are not prognostic. The results of Lallas and colleagues’ study establish that sentinel lymph node metastasis is not of diagnostic or prognostic signifi cance in patie...

The clinicopathologic classification, diagnosis, and management of Spitzoid melanocytic lesions is one of the most problematic topics in dermato-oncology and dermatopathology. After earlier anecdotal reports [1,2], the controversial history of these controversial lesions began in 1948 when Sophie Spitz described 13 cases of what she called “juvenile melanoma,” underlining its presumably good pr...

OBJECTIVE To achieve a clinicopathologic classification of Spitz nevi by comparing their clinical, dermoscopic, and histopathologic features. DESIGN Eighty-three cases were independently reviewed by 3 histopathologists and preliminarily classified into classic or desmoplastic Spitz nevus (CDSN, n = 11), pigmented Spitz nevus (PSN, n = 14), Reed nevus (RN, n = 16), or atypical Spitz nevus (ASN...

BACKGROUND Spitz nevus is a benign melanocytic lesion sometimes mistakenly diagnosed clinically as melanoma. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to evaluate in vivo reflectance-mode confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM) aspects of globular Spitz nevi and to correlate them with those of surface microscopy and histopathology. METHODS A total of 6 Spitz nevi, with globular aspects on epiluminescence obs...

The Drosophila embryonic central nervous system (CNS) develops from sets of neuroblasts (NBs) which segregate from the ventral neuroectoderm during early embryogenesis. It is not well established how each individual NB in the neuroectoderm acquires its characteristic identity along the dorsal-ventral axis. Since it is known that CNS midline cells and spitz class genes (pointed, rhomboid, single...