AI Article Synopsis

  • - The study explored the relationship between Breslow thickness (a measure of melanoma depth) and the diameter of cutaneous melanoma, focusing on patients with nodular melanoma (NM) and superficial spreading melanoma (SSM).
  • - Out of 537 melanoma cases analyzed, NM had a greater Breslow thickness compared to SSM, but there was no significant correlation between thickness and melanoma diameter, even after adjusting for factors like age and sex.
  • - The findings suggest that relying on a diameter greater than 6 mm may not be effective for detecting invasive melanomas, highlighting that smaller melanomas can also be significantly thicker.

Article Abstract

Introduction: A diameter larger than 6 mm is included in the criteria used in public health messages to detect a cutaneous melanoma. We aimed to investigate the independent association of Breslow thickness with the melanoma diameter.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed in patients with invasive melanomas of the nodular melanoma (NM) or superficial spreading melanoma (SSM) subtype. The quartiles of the diameter (lower, median, upper) were studied in non-parametric quantile regression model.

Results: In total, 537 cases of invasive melanomas were included and 60% had Breslow thickness ≤1.0 mm. There were 429 SSM (79.9%) and 108 NM (20.1%). Although NMs were significantly thicker (median Breslow thickness: 2.7 mm vs. 0.7 mm, respectively, p < 0.0001), they were not associated with larger diameter compared to SSMs (p = 0.71). After adjustment for age and sex, melanoma location and subtype, having Breslow thickness ≤1.0 mm was not significantly associated with the lower quartile, median and upper quartile of the diameter (p values: 0.063, 0.083, and 0.791, respectively).

Conclusion: In our study including melanomas of the NM or SSM subtype, Breslow thickness was not associated with the diameter, adding evidence to support the limitations of using diameter larger than 6 mm for the detection of invasive melanomas and indicating the potential of smaller melanomas to be thicker tumors.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000536151DOI Listing

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