A Probabilistic Neural Network Framework for the Detection of Malignant Melanoma
Raouf N.G. Naguib, Gajanan V. Sherbet in Artificial Neural Networks in Cancer Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Patient Management, 2001
Due to the rather steep increase in the number of reported malignant melanoma cases, it is becoming increasingly important to develop simple, objective and preferably non-invasive methods that are capable of diagnosing malignant melanoma. Today, the only accurate diagnostic technique is a biopsy and a histological analysis of the skin tissue sample. This is an expensive procedure as well as an uncomfortable experience for the patient. For patients with many skin lesions or dysplastic nevus syndrome (patients with dysplastic nevus syndrome have multiple dysplastic nevi – often in the dozens or even hundreds), this is clearly not a feasible diagnostic technique. The problem is further complicated due to the increasing awareness of skin cancer among the general population. People are consulting dermatologists more often, which again calls for a simple and accurate diagnostic technique.
Cutaneous malignant melanoma: epidemiology, endocrine features and hormone replacement therapy
A. R. Genazzani in Hormone Replacement Therapy and Cancer, 2020
Patients with the dysplastic nevus syndrome who were pregnant or taking oral contraceptives or sex steroid hormone supplements were studied prospectively to evaluate the effectiveness of close follow-up in detecting nevus changes of melanoma development33. The rate of nevi change observed clinically was 3.9 times higher when patients were pregnant than when they were not, whereas no differences were observed whether or not women took exogenous hormones. Whereas some case reports have suggested that pregnancy could exacerbate the activity of this malignancy, five controlled studies showed that patients who were diagnosed with melanoma during pregnancy had the same survival as that of control women of childbearing age who were not pregnant at the time of diagnosis34–38. Two studies found that a prior pregnancy had no effect on the clinical outcome of patients with melanoma38,39. A better prognosis has, however, been reported in cases of five or more prior pregnancies. Furthermore, Reintgen and colleagues34 and MacKie and co-workers38 detected no difference in survival between women who become pregnant after diagnosis of melanoma and appropriate controls.
The Cutaneous Manifestations of the Familial Atypical Multiple Mole Melanoma (FAMMM) Syndrome
Henry T. Lynch, Ramon M. Fusaro in Hereditary Malignant Melanoma, 2019
Piepkom26 has proposed that the lentiginous pattern of intraepidermal melanocytic hyperplasia, with mild to moderate, random cytologic atypia, forms the conventional basis for the histologic definition of a dysplastic nevus and is actually the histologic pattern of a nevus in an active phase of radial growth. He believes that the lesser degrees of atypia, both architectural and cytologic, considered by many to be required for the diagnosis of dysplastic nevi, overlap with the histologic findings commonly seen in banal nevi and lentigines. In the initial discovery of the FAMMM syndrome it was thought that the diagnosis of this clinical disorder was made with the clinical recognition of the atypical nevi which was then confirmed by histologic examination. It then evolved that most dermatopathologists felt that “most dysplastic nevi can be diagnosed with certainty on histologic grounds alone.”27 We have now come full circle within a decade with the same investigators who now state that the clinical criteria alone may be all that is necessary for the adequate diagnosis of dysplastic nevus syndrome.28 This of course is dependent upon what is meant by the “dysplastic nevus syndrome”. Are we speaking of the FAMMM syndrome (hereditary dysplastic nevus syndrome-HDNS) or are we speaking of the single patient who we have just seen who has not been investigated, the so-called sporadic DNS? This difference is important, as it dictates very divergent patterns of behavior for the physician who is confronted with his patient who has lots of moles with many of them large in size and “funny-looking”, so-called atypical nevi.
Characterization of uveal melanoma clinical trial design: a systematic review to establish an elusive standard of care
Published in Acta Oncologica, 2020
Harrison G. Zhang, Justin C. Moser, Lauren A. Dalvin
Uveal melanoma is a molecularly and clinically unique cancer which arises from melanocytes of the uveal tract, including the iris, ciliary body, and choroid [1]. It is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults, affecting approximately 5.1 in 1 million people [2]. Risk factors for uveal melanoma include light eye color, fair skin, ocular melanocytosis, dysplastic nevus syndrome, residence in northern latitudes, and germline BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) mutations [3–7]. Although the incidence rate of uveal melanoma in the United States has remained stagnant since the 1970s and there have been numerous advances in other areas of medical oncology globally, outcomes for uveal melanoma patients have not substantially improved [2]. About 50% of patients will develop uveal melanoma metastasis, most commonly to the liver, and about 45% of patients die from systemic metastases within 15 years [8]. Meta-analyses have estimated median overall survival (OS) for patients with metastatic disease to be only 10 to 13 months, and a meta-analysis of published survival outcomes found no association between OS and the decade of publication [8–12]. Currently, there is no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or European Medicines Agency (EMA)-approved standard of care for patients diagnosed with metastatic uveal melanoma. Thus, there is a critical need for clinical trials to investigate treatments that will improve survival and finally establish a standard of care. Herein, we perform a systematic review of registered clinical trials for uveal melanoma on the ClinicalTrials.gov database and European Union (EU) Clinical Trials Register in order to rigorously assess the current landscape of clinical trials associated with this disease and identify potential areas for improvement for future trials. We examine sources of funding, intervention methods, general design characteristics, primary outcome measures with respect to an interventional trial’s purpose, and characteristics of negative randomized trials.
Cutaneous eyelid melanoma in an African American child
Published in Orbit, 2021
Jan P. Ulloa-Padilla, Armen Khararjian, Catherine J. Choi
Most cases of CM in children develop from pre-existing lesions such as congenital or acquired nevi.2 While the etiology is likely multifactorial, p53, CDKN2A, CDK4, BAP1, POT1, ACD, TERF2IP, TERT, BRCA2, MC1 R mutations, as well as conditions such as dysplastic nevus syndrome and xeroderma pigmentosum have been linked to greater risk of developing melanoma.3
Related Knowledge Centers
- Dysplastic Nevus
- Melanoma
- Nevus
- P53
- Pancreatic Cancer
- Penetrance
- Superficial Spreading Melanoma
- Skin Condition
- CDKN2A
- Dominance