Melanoma

Malignant melanoma

4 types:

• superficial spreading - most common. thin and superficial
• nodular - smooth, may bleed and ulcerate
• lentigo maligna - Hutchinson's lentigo (premalignant condition)
• acral lentiginous - subungal melanoma

grading by

• Clark - anatomical layer
• Breslow - quantative depth

prognosis:

• breslow thickness
• LN
• metastasis

Always excisional biopsy > incisional biopsy.
incisional bx may miss malignant foci, and may miss edge