Acral melanoma: correlating the clinical presentation to the mutational status.

Acral melanoma: correlating the clinical presentation to the mutational status. G Ital Dermatol Venereol. 2018 Mar 06;: Authors: Ravaioli GM, Dika E, Lambertini M, Chessa MA, Fanti PA, Patrizi A Abstract Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is the most common type of malignant melanoma (MM) in Asians, Afro-Americans and Middle-Easterns. It represents 1.5-10% of all MM cases, being the most common histological type of MM arising on palms, soles and nail apparatus, which is more generically defined as acral MM. To date no risk factors have been officially established, however a history of trauma may be involved in the pathogenesis of acral MM. This shows heterogeneous clinical features and frequently presents with advanced stage and aggressive behaviour, often as a result of misdiagnosis or delayed identification. Dermoscopy is helpful for an early diagnosis of ALM: the most characteristic dermoscopic patterns are the parallel ridge and the irregular diffuse pigmentation. On histopathology ALM displays a lentiginous growth pattern, with melanocytes arranged as solitary units along the basilar epidermis, without notable pagetoid growth in the early stage. Not all acral MMs present a lentiginous pattern: superficial spreading melanoma (SSM) and nodular melanoma (NM) patterns are possible, too. Novel studies investigating the biologic characteristics of acral MM reported variable results: the overall mutational rates ranged respectively betwe...
Source: Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia - Category: Dermatology Tags: G Ital Dermatol Venereol Source Type: research