Dermoscopy, melanoma,

Melanoma incidence continues to increase across many populations globally and there is significant mortality associated with advanced disease. However, if detected early, patients have a very promising prognosis. The methods that have been utilized for early detection include clinician and patient skin examinations, dermoscopy (static and sequential imaging), and total body photography via 2D imaging. Total body photography has recently witnessed an evolution from 2D imaging with the ability to now create a 3D representation of the patient linked with dermoscopy images of individual lesions...

BACKGROUND: Dermoscopy is a useful tool for the diagnosis of acral melanomas (AM). However, little is known about the influence of tumor thickness on the dermoscopic findings of AM. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of Breslow thickness (BT) on the dermoscopic patterns of AM. METHODS: Data on cases of AM on the glabrous skin were collected from four university hospitals. We investigated the frequency of each dermoscopic feature of AM according to the BT...

Spitz nevi (SN) are benign melanocytic lesions typical of childhood/adolescence that can mimic melanoma on a clinical, dermoscopic, and histopathologic level. Moreover, SN are often characterized by rapid growth and worrisome changes. Thus, their diagnosis and management may be challenging. The knowledge on prognosis and natural history of SN improved substantially in the last few years thanks to dermoscopy and a better understanding of clinic-pathologic correlations. This article is protected by copyright...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Automatic segmentation of skin lesions in dermoscopy images is still a challenging task due to the large shape variations and indistinct boundaries of the lesions. Accurate segmentation of skin lesions is a key prerequisite step for any computer-aided diagnostic system to recognize skin melanoma. METHODS: In this paper, we propose a novel segmentation methodology via full resolution convolutional networks (FrCN). The proposed FrCN method directly learns the full resolution features of each individual pixel of the input data without the need for pre- or post-processing operations such as artifact removal, low contrast adjustment, or further enhancement of the segmented skin lesion boundaries...

INTRODUCTION: Lentigo maligna (LM) is a rare form of in situ melanoma, frequently seen as a large patch in elderly patients. The aim of this study was to assess clinical and dermoscopic features of LM. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study of LM patients presenting to our center between July 2007 and July 2017 was performed. Demographic data, anatomical location, laterality, diameter, Clark level, Breslow stage, "ABCD" signs and dermoscopic features were registered...

Multispectral digital skin lesion analysis (MSDSLA) is both sensitive and specific in the detection of malignant melanoma by dermatologists and nondermatologists, and data have shown that MSDSLA can be a valuable tool in the evaluation of pigmented skin lesions (PSLs). This study aimed to aggregate data from 7 prior studies to provide a comprehensive overview and evaluate the consistency of the effects of MSDSLA when used in conjunction with clinical examination and dermoscopy to evaluate PSLs.

According to the American Cancer Society, melanoma is one of the most common types of cancer in the world. In 2017, approximately 87,110 new cases of skin cancer were diagnosed in the United States alone. A dermatoscope is a tool that captures lesion images with high resolution and is one of the main clinical tools to diagnose, evaluate and monitor this disease. This paper presents a new approach to classify melanoma automatically using structural co-occurrence matrix (SCM) of main frequencies extracted from dermoscopy images...

BACKGROUND: Dermoscopy revealed to be extremely useful in the diagnosis of early melanoma, the most important limitation being its subjectivity in giving a final diagnosis. In order to overcome this problem several algorithms and checklists have been proposed. However, they generallydemonstrated modest level of diagnostic accuracy, unsatisfactory concordance between dermoscopists and/or poor specificity. OBJECTIVE: To test a new methodological approach for the differentiation between early melanoma and atypical nevi, based on an integrated clinical-anamnestic dermoscopic risk scoring system (iDScore)...

Background: Deep learning convolutional neural networks (CNN) may facilitate melanoma detection, but data comparing a CNN's diagnostic performance to larger groups of dermatologists are lacking. Methods: Google's Inception v4 CNN architecture was trained and validated using dermoscopic images and corresponding diagnoses. In a comparative cross-sectional reader study a 100-image test-set was used (level-I: dermoscopy only; level-II: dermoscopy plus clinical information and images)...

Vulvar melanoma is a rare and deadly cancer in women, and the prognosis is often poor. There are limited studies on the dermoscopic features of vulvar melanoma. Described criteria include the presence of blue, gray, or white colors. Herein we present the clinical and dermoscopic characteristics of a hypopigmented and heavily pigmented nodule in a 92-year-old and an 80-year-old woman. Dermoscopy in the former revealed structureless milky-red to white areas, remnants of brown pigmentation at the base and polymorphic vessels, while the latter displayed structureless blue-gray areas with black dots and peripheral lines at the base...

Background: The incidence of acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) in the white population is low. Dermoscopy enhances diagnosis of ALM; however, diagnostic accuracy may sometimes be poor due to the considerable proportion of amelanotic ALM variants. Objectives: To calculate the proportion of ALM among all melanoma subtypes and to determine the frequency of dermoscopic features of ALM in the Turkish population. Methods: Out of 612 melanomas, there were 70 cases of ALM, of which 46 showed sufficient image quality for retrospective study of dermoscopic features...

Spark's nevus is a particular type of melanocytic nevus that on histology shows features of both Spitz's and Clark's nevus. Clinically, it is an asymmetric, irregular, multicolored, pigmented lesion that is not clearly distinguishable from melanoma or dysplastic (Clark's) nevus. Dermoscopic features have not been described yet, and one could speculate that they are similar to those of Clark's nevi because the histopathologic architecture of Spark's nevus is similar to that of a Clark's nevus, resembling Spitz's nevi in the epithelioid morphology of melanocytes...

Worldwide melanoma incidence and mortality are increasing (1). Despite the ongoing research, advanced melanoma is still incurable; therefore, the most appropriate solution seems to be early detection combined with complete surgical excision (2). Since the diagnostic protocol of suspicious lesions includes a complete excision with safety margins (2), the problem of unnecessary scarring is significant. The real challenge in this case is to have a properly formulated diagnosis before acquiring a biopsy. Currently available non-invasive techniques are coherence tomography, digital dermoscopy, and reflectance confocal microscopy...

Purpose of Review: Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) enables imaging of skin lesions at cellular level resolution at the bedside (in vivo) or in freshly excised tissue (ex vivo). This article provides an overview of strengths and limitations of non-invasive RCM in skin cancer diagnosis. Recent Findings: RCM features of common melanocytic and non-melanocytic skin neoplasms such as melanoma, actinic keratosis/squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and nevi have been well defined and show good correlation with dermoscopic and histopathologic findings...

Background: With advances in medical imaging systems, digital dermoscopy has become one of the major imaging modalities in the analysis of skin lesions. Thus, automated segmentation or border detection has a great impact on the subsequent steps of skin cancer computer-aided diagnosis using demoscopy images. Since dermoscopy images suffer from artifacts such as shading and hair, there is a need for automated and robust artifact attenuation removal and lesion border detection. Methods: method for segmentation of dermoscopy images is proposed based on active contour...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193321.].

Melanoma skin cancer is the most aggressive type of skin cancer. It is most commonly caused by excessive exposure to Ultraviolet radiation which triggers uncontrollable proliferation of melanocytes. Early detection makes melanoma relatively easily curable. Diagnosis is usually done using traditional methods such as dermoscopy which consists of a manual examination performed by the physician. However, these methods are not always well founded because they depend heavily on the physician's experience. Hence, there is a great need for a new automated approach in order to make diagnosis more reliable...

BACKGROUND: The earlier detection of melanomas occurring within preexisting nevi is theoretically possible using sequential dermoscopy. Characterizing the early follow-up changes of nevus-associated melanomas (NAMs) and differentiating them from those observed in de novo melanomas (DNMs) may help the earlier recognition of NAMs. METHODS: Using descriptive dermoscopic features to detect focal changes, we blindly evaluated retrospectively the baseline and follow-up images of 32 melanomas that were subsequently classified as histopathologically defined NAMs or DNMs...

Introduction: The use of vemurafenib in melanoma has improved the survival of patients; however, it is associated with skin toxicities. Aim: To assess skin toxicities by dermoscopy in patients treated with vemurafenib. Material and methods: Eight patients with BRAF V600 mutation positive metastatic melanoma were examined dermoscopically during vemurafenib treatment. All skin lesions occurring during therapy were assessed clinically and dermoscopically using a hand-held dermoscope with polarised and non-polarised light...

BACKGROUND: Skin cancer represents the most prevalent type of cancer in the United States. Excision of these lesions can leave significant scarring, and a delay in the diagnosis of malignant melanoma could result in metastasis or death. Therefore, developing technology and criteria to accurately diagnose these cancers is of particular importance to the medical community. While biopsy can lead to scarring and infections, dermoscopy and confocal microscopy offer noninvasive imaging methods but are also limited in their ability to determine tumor depth and margins...