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Punch biopsy of melanoma causing tumour cell implantation: Another peril of utilising partial biopsies for melanocytic tumours
Author(s) -
Luk Peter P,
Vilain Ricardo,
Crainic Oana,
McCarthy Stanley W,
Thompson John F,
Scolyer Richard A
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australasian journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.67
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1440-0960
pISSN - 0004-8380
DOI - 10.1111/ajd.12333
Subject(s) - medicine , melanoma , biopsy , breslow thickness , sampling (signal processing) , dermatology , radiology , pathology , cancer , cancer research , sentinel lymph node , filter (signal processing) , breast cancer , computer science , computer vision
The recommended initial management for suspected melanoma is excisional biopsy. The use of partial biopsies of melanocytic tumours poses potential problems including misdiagnosis due to either unrepresentative sampling or the difficulty in evaluating important diagnostic features; an inaccurate assessment of Breslow thickness and other important prognostic features; and the induction of changes capable of mimicking melanoma (i.e., pseudomelanoma). Misdiagnosis, in turn, may lead to inappropriate management of the patient and an adverse outcome. In this report we document a previously unrecognised pitfall of partial biopsies of melanocytic tumours: implantation of tumour cells at the biopsy site potentially leading to the overestimation of tumour thickness or a misdiagnosis of the presence of microsatellites in the subsequent wide excision specimen.