Childhood melanoma: update and treatment.

Childhood melanoma is a rare but potentially fatal disease that is important to include in the differential diagnosis of any pigmented lesion in a child. The best prognosis is achieved with early diagnosis and definitive surgical excision. Adjuvant chemotherapy and immunotherapy are options for those with more advanced tumors.

The clinical appearance of clonal nevi (inverted type A nevi).

Background: The term "clonal nevus" is used to describe a variant of melanocytic nevus that histologically exhibits a localized proliferation of pigmented epithelioid dermal melanocytes within an otherwise ordinary nevus (Ball NJ, Golitz LE. Melanocytic nevi with focal atypical epithelioid cell components: a review of seventy-three cases. J Am Acad Dermatol 1994; 30: 724-729).

Numerous, small, darkly pigmented melanocytic nevi: the cheetah phenotype.

Background: The presence of multiple atypical nevi or numerous melanocytic nevi increases the risk for the development of cutaneous melanoma.

Objective: We sought to describe a distinct clinical phenotype characterized by numerous (>100), small (< or =4 mm), darkly pigmented melanocytic nevi that are uniform in color.

Methods: Biopsy specimens from 6 patients (3 men and 3 women; age range, 44 to 81 years) with this clinical phenotype were reviewed and compared with a database of melanocytic lesions analyzed by the Yale Dermatopathology Laboratory (YDL) in the year 2000.