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Loss of the skin surface over a melanoma under the microscope; a sign of aggressive biology that raises the stage.
Ulceration in melanoma is loss of the intact skin surface over the primary tumour as seen under the microscope, and it is a marker of aggressive biology. It is present in roughly a quarter of primary melanomas, independently worsens prognosis, and defines the b substage at each T level, so a lesion of a given Breslow thickness is staged higher if it is ulcerated. Historically it was taken to predict benefit from interferon; today its main role is in defining stage IIB and IIC, the group for which adjuvant PD-1 therapy is approved. The term is read alongside Breslow thickness, the other pathological feature that drives staging of the primary.
Each skin cancer comes from a different cell layer: melanocytes and basal cells at the base of the epidermis, keratinocytes above them, Merkel cells and blood vessels in the dermis; depth of invasion decides the risk.
Same organ: Basal cell carcinoma, Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, Kaposi sarcoma, Skin cancer (all types), BRAF V600-mutant melanoma, Stage III melanoma (after surgery), Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Advanced melanoma (unresectable stage III and stage IV), Mucosal melanoma, Acral melanoma, Advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, Locally advanced and metastatic basal cell carcinoma, Bowen's disease (squamous cell carcinoma in situ), Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans
Showing the organ this term concerns: Melanoma.
Shares Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Stage III melanoma (after surgery), Melanoma.
Shares Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Stage III melanoma (after surgery), Melanoma.
Shares Breslow thickness, Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Acral melanoma, Stage III melanoma (after surgery).
Shares Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Stage III melanoma (after surgery).
Shares Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Stage III melanoma (after surgery), Melanoma.
Shares Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Melanoma.
Shares Stage IIB and IIC melanoma, Acral melanoma, Melanoma.