Identification of stage I/IIA melanoma patients at high risk for disease relapse using a clinicopathologic and gene expression model.

Purpose: Patients with stage I/IIA cutaneous melanoma (CM) are currently not eligible for adjuvant therapies despite uncertainty in relapse risk. Here, we studied the ability of a recently developed model which combines clinicopathologic and gene expression variables (CP-GEP) to identify stage I/IIA melanoma patients who have a high risk for disease relapse.

Patients And Methods: Archival specimens from a cohort of 837 consecutive primary CMs were used for assessing the prognostic performance of CP-GEP.

Model Combining Tumor Molecular and Clinicopathologic Risk Factors Predicts Sentinel Lymph Node Metastasis in Primary Cutaneous Melanoma.

Purpose: More than 80% of patients who undergo sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy have no nodal metastasis. Here we describe a model that combines clinicopathologic and molecular variables to identify patients with thin and intermediate thickness melanomas who may forgo the SLN biopsy procedure due to their low risk of nodal metastasis.

Patients And Methods: Genes with functional roles in melanoma metastasis were discovered by analysis of next generation sequencing data and case control studies.

Malignant syphilis: ostraceous, ulceronecrotic lesions in a patient with human immunodeficiency virus.

We present a 36-year-old HIV-positive man with a sixweek history of spreading, ulcerative, and necroticcutaneous lesions. Laboratory and histopathologicexamination revealed syphilis. This case of malignantsyphilis, also known as lues maligna, is an uncommonvariant of this sexually transmitted infection.