Pigmented lesion pathology: the specimen and its report. A personal and probably biased approach

The author outlines general principles and pitfalls in the pathologic interpretation of pigmented skin lesions, then focuses on issues related specifically to gross tissue specimens and to the histologic report. He concludes that definitive therapy for melanoma should not be based on partial biopsies, that frozen sections are not indicated, and that the pathologist should report all of the relevant histologic attributes whenever possible.