Correlation Between Surgical and Histologic Margins in Melanoma Wide Excision Specimens

Wide surgical excision is the standard treatment for localized primary cutaneous melanomas, with a narrow histologic margin associated with an increased risk of local recurrence. The correlation between surgical and histologic margins is poorly documented in the literature.

An audit was performed to (1) document the shrinkage of formalin-fixed specimens, and (2) use a precisely measured surgical margin in vivo to predict the histologic margin. For patients presenting for wide excision of melanomas and other malignant skin tumors, measured surgical margin, in vivo and ex vivo specimen width, and histologic margins after formalin fixation were recorded. The effects of clinicopathologic characteristics, including age, sex, body mass index (BMI), tumor type, anatomic site, and presence of visible tumor in predicting specimen shrinkage and histologic margin were assessed.

In total, 252 specimens were evaluated. When compared with measured width in vivo, the formalin-fixed specimens showed a mean shrinkage of 14% (R² = 0.98), regardless of patient age, sex, BMI, or site of the lesion. The measured surgical margin was not a strong predictor of the histologic margin, with a high degree of variability (R² = 0.55) not explained by patient factors, tumor subtype, or presence of visible tumor at the time of excision (p > 0.05).

A consistent 14% shrinkage rate of wide excision specimens was found across all patients and excision sites, and we propose a clinically useful 15% correction factor that will account for fixation and shrinkage of cutaneous excision specimens. Excision margins measured by the surgeon were a poor predictor of the histologic margins.