Routine Clinical-Pathologic Correlation of Pigmented Skin Tumors Can Influence Patient Management

Several studies have demonstrated the benefit of integrating clinical with pathologic information, to obtain a confident diagnosis for melanocytic tumors. However, all those studies were conducted retrospectively and no data are currently available about the role of a clinical-pathologic correlation approach on a daily basis in clinical practice.

In our study, we evaluated the impact of a routine clinical-pathologic correlation approach for difficult skin tumors seen over 3 years in a tertiary referral center.

Interestingly, a re-appraisal was requested for 158 out of 2015 (7.7%) excised lesions because clinical-pathologic correlation was missing. Of note, in 0.6% of them (13 out of 2045) the first histologic diagnosis was revised in the light of clinical information that assisted the Pathologist to re-evaluate the histopathologic findings that might be bland or inconspicuous per se.

In conclusion, our study demonstrated that an integrated approach involving clinicians and pathologists allows improving management of selected patients by shifting from a simply disease-focused management (melanoma versus nevus) to a patient-centered approach.