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Updated: Apr 26, 2026
Combining Reflectance Confocal Microscopy with Optical Coherence Tomography for Noninvasive Diagnosis of Skin Cancers via Image Acquisition
Published on: August 18, 2022
CD271 is expressed in melanomas with more aggressive behaviour, with correlation of characteristic morphology by in
1Department of Surgical, Medical, Dental and Morphological Sciences with interest in Transplant, Oncology and Regenerative Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Largo del Pozzo 71, 41124, Modena, Italy.
Background:
Melanoma is the most highly aggressive type of skin cancer. Its resistance to existing treatments and the rapid rise in incidence underscore the importance of acquiring a better understanding of melanomagenesis.
Objectives:
To assess the impact of reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) on the description of cell morphology, which may influence the growth pattern and changes with increasing tumour severity, correlating with biological aspects.
Methods:
A retrospective analysis of 30 primary melanomas in vivo, evaluated by RCM, to correlate cell morphology and cellular arrangement with a marker of melanoma progression (CD271) using immunohistochemical evaluations.
Results:
Typical cells organized in dermal nests with peculiar in vivo confocal morphology result in melanoma with high malignancy and positivity to CD271. This architecture might be due to the presence of a type of cells, intrinsically predisposed to invasion, as a result of dedifferentiation programming, revealed by expression of the neural crest marker CD271.
Conclusions:
With the hypothesis that dedifferentiated cells would be strongly responsible for initiation of tumour development and progression, we propose that CD271 detection could be associated with RCM evaluation in order to detect more aggressive melanoma subtypes.
