Praxis Medica (Jan 2019)
Clinical and morphological characteristics of malignant melanoma
Abstract
Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer that has a tendency of early lymphatic and hematogenous metastasis. Surgical excision constitutes as a methods of treatment. Early diagnosis is the key to successful treatment of melanoma, which is primarily associated with Breslow and Clark grading. The aim of this study was to investigate these and other prognostic parameters such as the age, the gender and the anatomical distribution of melanoma, macroscopic and histological type of melanoma, the size and the remains of the tumor tissue at the surgical margins. We analysed biopsy material of Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine in Pristina from 2004 to 2017. year. We found that melanoma were more common at older men (average age of 68.5 ± 14.6 years), most common location was back, head and neck, upper and lower extremities, where were frequent occurrence of metastasis (Clark IV). Larger tumors require a wider excision. The greatest incidence was nodular type melanoma and predominant histological were epitheloid type melanoma. Between the size of the tumor masses and the depth of invasion there were no statistically significant positive correlation, which leads to the conclusion that the Clark and Breslow can be used as prognostic factors because they are mutually comparable.
