RESUMO
Dermatologists and dermatopathologists face the difficulties of accurately diagnosing and treating atypical melanocytic lesions and melanomas. Despite huge advances in medicine, our management of melanoma has not significantly changed in many years. The biggest gains made recently have been in the identification of common mutations in melanoma and the use of these mutations to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma. To understand these gains one must first be familiar with the regulatory pathways of melanoma and the most common mutations found there. This article will review the function and significance of the most studied mutations in melanoma and briefly discuss new and planned treatment options.
Assuntos
Melanoma/genética , Neoplasias Cutâneas/genética , Genes ras/genética , Humanos , Melanoma/diagnóstico , Melanoma/terapia , Fosfatidilinositol 3-Quinases/genética , Proteínas Proto-Oncogênicas B-raf/genética , Proteínas Proto-Oncogênicas c-kit/genética , Retinoblastoma/genética , Neoplasias Cutâneas/diagnóstico , Neoplasias Cutâneas/terapiaRESUMO
Extraocular sebaceous gland carcinoma is a rare cutaneous malignancy which sometimes can grow rapidly. There is no proven effective treatment for metastatic disease, but the tumor can be successfully treated by surgery if diagnosed early. We report an 83-year-old gentleman with a rapidly growing sebaceous gland carcinoma of the right flank which was initially misdiagnosed as a vascular malformation. By the time he was referred, he had widespread metastatic disease and was a candidate for palliative radiation only.
