ABSTRACT
A male newborn had a large cerebriform tumor covering his shoulders and almost the entire surface of his back. After exclusion of further abnormalities, the diagnosis of cerebriform intradermal nevus was made. This particular variant of giant melanocytic nevus should always be differentiated from cutis verticis gyrata, if located on the vertex. The clinical manifestation of cerebriform intradermal nevi as giant melanocytic nevi on the back is extremely rare, with only one instance reported to date. Such nevi are a therapeutic challenge, particularly if the skin lesion covers a large surface of the body, as in the patient presented here.
Subject(s)
Nevus, Intradermal/pathology , Skin Neoplasms/pathology , Back , Biopsy, Needle , Humans , Immunohistochemistry , Infant, Newborn , Male , Monitoring, Physiologic/methods , Nevus, Intradermal/congenital , Nevus, Intradermal/therapy , Nevus, Pigmented/congenital , Nevus, Pigmented/pathology , Nevus, Pigmented/therapy , Prognosis , Risk Assessment , Skin Neoplasms/congenital , Skin Neoplasms/therapySubject(s)
Adjuvants, Immunologic/pharmacology , Aminoquinolines/pharmacology , Human papillomavirus 16/metabolism , Penile Diseases/drug therapy , Penile Diseases/pathology , Penile Diseases/virology , Plasmids/metabolism , Precancerous Conditions/drug therapy , Adult , Aged , Humans , Imiquimod , In Situ Hybridization , In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence , Male , Precancerous Conditions/pathology , Precancerous Conditions/virology , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
The induction of angiogenesis is crucial in the development of most human tumors. Angiogenesis is routinely assessed by the density of tumor microvessels. This technique reveals controversial results on the clinical and prognostic value of angiogenesis in melanoma. We investigated angiogenesis in tumor tissues of 58 cutaneous melanoma patients, of which a clinical follow-up of over 10 years was available, through assessment of microvessel density and by enumeration of the number of proliferating endothelial cells. To that end, vessels were immunohistochemically detected by CD31/CD34 staining, and proliferating endothelial cells were enumerated in a double staining with the proliferation marker Ki67. We found that microvessel density did not correlate with tumor stage or survival, neither in intratumoral nor in peritumoral areas. In contrast, proliferating endothelial cells were only observed in intratumoral areas and were correlated positively with tumor stage and the presence of distant metastases. In addition, a strong positive correlation was found with the number of proliferating tumor cells. Finally, high numbers of growing endothelial cells predicted short survival. Our results show that angiogenesis could best be measured by enumeration of proliferating endothelial cells and that this parameter has prognostic value in patients with cutaneous melanoma.
