Abstract
Introduction: Melanoma, a neoplasm of melanocytes is the most aggressive and life-threatening skin cancer. The incidence of it is higher in fair skinned people as the Ultraviolet-light exposure is the most important risk factor with the malignant transformation of the nevi. So here we aimed to determine the clinical and histopathological findings of our Melanoma cases.
Method: We reviewed the tumors of the patients who received the diagnosis of Melanoma at our Pathology Laboratory, between 2011 and 2018 retrospectively.
Results and Discussion: There were 43 skin Melanoma cases. 21(48.8%) of the patients were female, 22(51.2%) were male. The median-age in females was 68, while 64 in males. 35(81.4%) of the 43 cases were Nodular Melanoma(NM), 3(7%) were Superficial-spreading melanoma(SSM) and 5(11.6%) were Melanoma-in-situ(MIS). None of the SSMs and MISs had metastasis to anywhere.
7(20%) of the NMs had lymph-node and 3(8.6%) had soft tissue metastasis at the time of diagnosis. 4 developed lung, brain, stomach and nasopharinx metastases in the following 2 years. The ratio of the Clark Level 2,3,4,5 of NMs were 11.4%, 28.6%, 45.7% and 14.3% respectively. Most of the metastatic cases were Clark Level 3 or 4. This study showed that Melanoma is generally diagnosed at WHO-Stage 2 or 3 and this cause worse prognosis as the cure rates depend greatly on the stage.
Conclusion: As a result it’s very important to self-examine the existing nevi on our skin in order to detect the early malignant transformation to Melanoma and protect our skin from Ultraviolet-light.