Melanoma is the most severe form of skin cancer with an incidence that is increasing all over the world. Melanoma cells derive from normal melanocytes and share different melanocyte-specific antigens, the same antigens against which an immune reaction develops in vitiligo, a skin disease characterized by autoimmune-mediated melanocyte destruction. The purpose of this review is to present the autoimmune-mediated melanocyte destruction associated with melanoma development, progression and treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBasal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequent of all cancers, with an increasing incidence. The first line therapy is surgical excision, but topical therapies can be used in low-risk superficial BCCs, while the more advanced, unresectable, or metastatic BCCs benefit from systemic therapies with hedgehog inhibitors and immunotherapy. The purpose of this review is to highlight local and systemic immunotherapies and their efficacy in the management of BCCs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe occurrence of second primary malignancies is becoming increasingly important among cancer survivors. Melanoma, an aggressive neoplasm originating from the melanocytes, is responsible for most skin cancer-related deaths. This review aims to explore the risk of melanoma occurrence as a second primary cancer after the most common subtypes of hematologic neoplasia, a malignant disease originating from myeloid or lymphocytic cell lineages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNodular or keloidal scleroderma is a rare condition with unclear cause and sporadic mentions in the medical literature. It was first recognized in the 19th century, yet its classification is still debated due to the limited number of reported cases. This rare variant of scleroderma is associated with either progressive systemic sclerosis or localized morphea.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLentigo maligna (LM) is a melanoma in situ that is prevalent in chronically sun-damaged skin. Characterized by a slow growth pattern and high mutation rates due to chronic UV exposure, LM poses diagnostic and therapeutic challenges, particularly given its tendency to mimic other skin lesions and its occurrence in cosmetically sensitive areas. Its diagnosis is based on an integrated approach using dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the healthcare system and negatively affected the diagnosis and management of melanoma worldwide. The purpose of this study is to investigate the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnosis and prognosis of melanoma.
Materials And Methods: This retrospective cohort study included histopathologically confirmed melanoma cases from March 2019 to February 2023 in Cluj and Bihor counties.
Survival rates for melanoma have increased in recent years, a higher number of patients survive after diagnosis, and, therefore, are at an increased risk of developing second primary melanoma. The aim of this literature review is to identify and integrate the incidence rates and other characteristics of multiple primary melanomas. A total of 36 independent studies were included in this review.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
November 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the healthcare system in our country and led non-COVID patients to postpone medical visits that were not urgent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trends in melanoma diagnosis and to compare the pathological characteristics of melanoma patients before and during the pandemic. The number of primary cutaneous melanomas diagnosed each month between 1 March 2019 and 29 February 2020 (pre-COVID-19) and between 1 March 2020 and 28 February 2021 (COVID-19) in the North-Western Region of Romania (Cluj and Bihor counties) was determined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBreast cancer is one of the most common malignancies and the leading cause of death among women worldwide. About 20% of breast cancers are hereditary. Approximately 30% of the mutations have remained negative after testing even in families with a Mendelian inheritance pattern for breast cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Gastrointestin Liver Dis
March 2019
Gastric heterotopia is defined as the presence of morphologically normal gastric tissue at a non-physiological site, coexisting with the original tissue. Although it is not uncommon to see it in the esophagus, duodenum or small intestine, it is exceptionally rare to discover gastric mucosa in the rectum. Here we report the case of a 46-year old male with a 10-year history of ulcerative colitis in whom the surveillance rectosigmoidoscopy detected a Mayo score of 1 for ulerative colitis activity and a middle rectal sessile polyp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLaterality defects in humans, situs inversus and heterotaxy, are rare disorders, with an incidence of 1:8000 to 1:10 000 in the general population, and a multifactorial etiology. It has been proved that 1.44/10 000 of all cardiac problems are associated with malformations of left-right asymmetry and heterotaxy accounts for 3% of all congenital heart defects.
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