Epidemiologic research has shown convincingly that certain phenotypic attributes are associated with increased relative risks of melanoma. Although such findings have intrinsic utility, there have been few attempts to translate such knowledge into estimates of disease burden suitable for framing public health policy. We aimed to estimate the population attributable fraction (PAF) for melanoma a...

OBJECTIVES To identify in vivo microscopic substrates of the dermoscopic patterns of melanocytic lesions and to correlate them with histopathologic features. DESIGN Before excision, lesion areas that showed characteristic dermoscopic patterns were imaged by dermoscopy and confocal microscopy and directly correlated with histopathologic features. SETTING Departments of Dermatology of the Uni...

1 Michael V. DeFazio, MD Jerry W. Chao, MD Albert K. Oh, MD Gary F. Rogers, MD Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Children’s National Medical Center Wash. Sir: G congenital blue nevi (GCBN) are rare dermal melanocytic proliferations that are distinguished by their large size, aggressive behavior, and propensity for malignant degeneration.1 To date, only 18 cases of GCBN involving th...

Cases of GMN associated with small disseminated nevi involving the entire body have been documented with historical figures published in many articles and textbooks [4–9] and have also been reported in more recent publications [10–13] . So far, the associated small nevi have usually been categorized as ‘satellite lesions’ [4, 12, 13] . Admittedly, true satellite lesions are often noted. As a ru...

"Nevi of special sites" is a term that denotes melanocytic nevi presenting in specific anatomic locations including the scalp, genital area, flexural sites, and acral sites [1]. Nevi from these anatomic sites display at times histopathologic features that may lead the reading pathologist to recommend re-excision of these benign nevi. Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a noninvasive imagin...

The incidence of melanoma increases markedly in the second decade of life but almost nothing is known of the causes of melanoma in this age group. We report on the first population-based case-control study of risk factors for melanoma in adolescents (15-19 years). Data were collected through personal interviews with cases, controls and parents. A single examiner conducted full-body nevus counts...

BACKGROUND Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), a polycomb group protein that regulates the cell cycle, has recently been implicated in the progression of several human cancers. We sought to determine the pattern of EZH2 expression in benign and malignant melanocytic tumors to see if EZH2 might play a role in melanoma pathogenesis and progression. METHODS We identified and reviewed 11 compound...

OBJECT The authors performed spinal ultrasonography and/or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in 20 consecutive newborns with spinal strawberry nevi. METHODS In 15 patients the strawberry nevi were isolated and in five they were associated with other cutaneous markers of occult spinal dysraphism (OSD). In four of five patients with additional cutaneous markers, but in none of those without, MR i...

BACKGROUND Pigmented lesions are common, yet they present diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. They range from nevi, which are clinically stable, to melanomas, which are notorious for distant metastasis and death. Both nevi and melanomas arise from melanocytes, which are neural crest derivatives, and melanocyte precursors migrate from the paraspinal area to their eventual location at the derm...