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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Thickness, cross-sectional areas and depth of invasion in the prognosis of cutaneous melanoma.

Alexander Breslow
- 01 Nov 1970 - 
- Vol. 172, Iss: 5, pp 902-908
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TLDR
The depth of invasion was studied using the criteria for staging of Clark et al.2 to see if maximal cross-sectional area, thickness, stage of invasion, or a combination of these can be of value in assessing the prognosis of cutaneous melanoma.
Abstract
CuTANEous melanoma is a most unpredictable lesion. The marked variation in prognosis is probably a function of many variables, one of which is the size of the tumor. Though there is a roughly inverse relationship between the diameter of the lesion and survival,5 very small lesions have recurred or metastasized. One possible reason for the lack of reliability of tumor size in estimating prognosis may be that studies to date have considered size in only two diamensions and have neglected tumor volume. Two melanomas can have the same diameter but differ greatly in thickness because of variation in either depth of invasion or degree of protrusion from the surface of the skin or both. A recent study 2 has shown that prognosis correlates well with staging of the depth of invasion, but there have been no studies relating survival to tumor volume. To measure tumor volume it is necessary to know the surface area of the tumor, but in this retrospective study we only know the maximal diameters of the lesions. By measuring the maximal thickness of the lesions we can calculate the maximal crosssectional area, which should be roughly proportional to the volume of the tumor. The depth of invasion was also studied using the criteria for staging of Clark et al.2 to see if maximal cross-sectional area, thickness, stage of invasion, or a combination of these can be of value in assessing the prognosis of cutaneous melanoma. A total of 98 lesions were so studied.

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Combined surgery and cryotherapy for diffuse malignant melanoma of the conjunctiva.

TL;DR: Two patients who had refused exenteration for widespread conjunctival melanoma were treated by a combination of cryotherapy and surgical excisions, and sequential biopsies have established that the atypical melanocytes have disappeared from the epithelium.
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Progressive increase in telomerase activity from benign melanocytic conditions to malignant melanoma.

TL;DR: Results indicate that levels of telomerase activity and telomersase RNA in melanocytic lesions correlate well with clinical stage and could potentially assist in the diagnosis of borderline lesions.
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Survival from preinvasive and invasive malignant melanoma in Western Australias

TL;DR: The crude and relative survival rates from malignant melanoma of the skin were evaluated in 528 patients diagnosed in Western Australia in 1975–1976 and the effects on prognosis of sex, anatomic site, clinical stage, level of invasion and tumor thickness were examined.
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Immunohistochemical localization of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in primary and metastatic malignant melanomas

TL;DR: It is suggested that in malignant melanomas muscarinic receptors might play a regulative role in infiltrative growth and metastasis.
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Malignant melanoma of the uterine cervix: case report and review of the literature.

TL;DR: The data contained in 25 published case reports were collated in an attempt to clarify the origin, presenting symptoms, macroscopic appearance, and staging of the tumor.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Some Methods for Strengthening the Common χ 2 Tests

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss two kinds of failure to make the best use of x2 tests which I have observed from time to time in reading reports of biological research, and propose a number of methods for strengthening or supplementing the most common uses of the ordinary x2 test.
Journal Article

The Histogenesis and Biologic Behavior of Primary Human Malignant Melanomas of the Skin

TL;DR: Evidence is presented suggesting that superficial spreading melanoma and lentigo maligna melanoma (Hutchinson9s melanotic freckle) show a long period of superficial growth, followed by the relatively rapid appearance of nodules or deeper invasion within the primary lesion.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Detection of Partial Association, I: The 2 × 2 Case

TL;DR: In this article, a criterion for testing null hypotheses of conditional independence of two dichotomous random variables is derived for testing whether the association of the two random variables in the conditional distribution is, in a certain sense, constant.
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