[Clinico-morpho-sonographic parallels in skin melanoma]

Area of Science:

• Dermatology
• Radiology
• Oncology

Background:

• Skin melanoma diagnosis and staging are critical for effective treatment.
• Sonographic features of melanoma variants require further elucidation.
• Preoperative assessment of tumor characteristics can improve patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present sonographic features of various skin melanoma types.
• To investigate the relationship between sonographic measurements and melanoma invasion depth (Clark level) and thickness (Breslow depth).
• To identify distinct melanoma vascular patterns using ultrasound and assess their prognostic significance.

Main Methods:

• Utilized ultrasound tomography for preoperative assessment of primary melanoma.
• Analyzed sonographic features including skin to tumor thickness ratio.
• Characterized melanoma vascular patterns, categorizing them as 'avascular' (superficial) and 'vascular' (node-like).
• Employed color Doppler imaging to visualize vascularity, identifying a 'tree-like' pattern.

Main Results:

• Established a correlation between the skin to tumor thickness ratio and both Clark invasion depth and Breslow tumor thickness.
• Demonstrated the effectiveness of ultrasound tomography in identifying tumor extent preoperatively.
• Identified 'avascular' and 'vascular' patterns of melanoma blood supply.
• Found a 'tree-like' vascular pattern, visualized with color Doppler imaging, to be typical of melanoma.
• Observed that melanomas with a 'tree-like' vascular pattern exhibited a poor prognosis.

Conclusions:

• Sonographic features, including vascular patterns, can aid in the preoperative characterization and staging of skin melanoma.
• The 'tree-like' vascular pattern identified by color Doppler imaging is associated with unfavorable prognosis in melanoma patients.
• Ultrasound tomography is a valuable tool for assessing tumor extent and guiding clinical management of melanoma.