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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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Citations
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Incidence and Survival Patterns in the United States, 1986-2005

TL;DR: The authors examined incidence and survival patterns of acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) in the United States and found that ALM is a rare melanoma subtype, although its proportion among all melanomas is higher in people of color.
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Cutaneous melanoma: Prognosis and treatment results worldwide

TL;DR: This first metanalysis of melanoma from treatment centers worldwide consisted of 15,798 patients with localized melanoma (stages I and II) and 2,116 stage II melanoma patients with nodal metastases, and women had a statistically significant survival advantage over men.
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Examination of Regional Lymph Nodes by Sentinel Node Biopsy and Molecular Analysis Provides New Staging Facilities in Primary Cutaneous Melanoma

TL;DR: This study addresses the question whether application of a highly sensitive molecular biology assay for detection of submicroscopic melanoma cells in sentinel lymph nodes may be suitable to improve melanoma staging and demonstrates Tyrosinase reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for the detection of minimal residual melanoma in sent Sentinel lymph nodes is a powerful tool to determine patients who are at increased risk for subsequent metastasis.
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Conjunctival melanoma in the Netherlands: a nationwide study.

TL;DR: Nonepibulbar tumors more often recur locally and are associated with a shorter survival independent of other risk factors, while tumor thickness is also an important predictor of regional and distant metastases, as well as survival.
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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