Dermoscopy: distinguishing malignant tumors from benign

Abstract

Dermoscopy has dramatically developed, becoming a well-established routine technique in many countries in the mid-1980s. Dermoscopy allows physicians to observe structures and colors otherwise not visible to unaided eyes, increasing melanoma diagnostic accuracy by up to 35%. Moreover, dermoscopy allows for increases in the number of diagnosed and excised melanomas together with a reduction in the number of unnecessary excisions. New data are continuously acquired mostly on melanoma diagnosis, follow-up of melanocytic lesions and nevogenesis. Short-term 3-month follow-up is the optimum time interval for identifying minimal changes in featureless melanomas. Nevertheless, long-term follow-up is similarly useful for the recognition of changes in melanomas with very low rates of growth. In the last few years a huge number of publications on dermoscopy have been published. The aim of this review is to summarize the most important recent advances in dermoscopy.

The use of teledermoscopy in the accurate identification of cancerous skin lesions in the adult population: A systematic review

“…10 After critiquing the full-text articles, 21 articles were removed from this review due to failure in meeting inclusion criteria. Articles eliminated included the following: 13 articles focused specifically on teledermatology with no definition of teledermoscopy in the actual studies; 11–23 three letters to the editor; 24–26 two purely informational articles without defined study groups or methodologies; 27,28 one practice guideline from the American Telemedicine Association on the Practice Guidelines for Teledermatology; 29 one expert review which focused on distinguishing malignant tumours from benign utilizing dermoscopy; 30 and one article involving only text-messaging as a form of early detection. 31 Figure 1 summarizes this literature screening process.…”

The Role of Dermoscopy in Diagnosis of Benign Skin Neoplasms

“…Minimizing Dermoscopy is an excellent tool for improving skin cancer diagnosis, as it offers high sensitivity for detecting skin malignancies while maintaining high specificity. A thorough understanding of dermoscopy is necessary; it can serve as a link between clinicians and pathologists, enhancing clinicopathologic correlation (Gulia et al 2012, Yelamos et al 2018.…”

“…The analysis pattern is based on extensive, qualitative evaluations of many factors on each individual. As a result, proper dermoscopy training is required (Gulia et al 2012).…”