A preliminary study suggests that melanomas have a different appearance than other irregular skin moles (i.e., are "ugly ducklings"), according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Dermatology.
Rates of malignant melanoma continue to increase, and early identification allows surgeons to treat the disease by removing the tumor, according to background information in the article. The disease is more common in individuals with many moles or other skin marks, especially if the marks are atypical in color, shape or size. “The challenge for clinicians who diagnose and treat pigmented skin lesions is to distinguish between malignant melanoma and benign simulants,” the authors write.
Alon Scope, M.D., of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues obtained images of the backs of 12 patients from a database of standardized patient images. All of the patients had at least eight atypical moles, and five patients had one lesion that had been confirmed as a melanoma. Thirty-four study participants—including eight pigmented lesion experts, 13 general dermatologists, five dermatology nurses and eight non-clinical medical staff—were asked to evaluate the images and identify lesions that looked different from all other atypical moles.