Derm - Skin Cancer Flashcards
What is a melanoma?
malignant tumour arising from melanocytes
What are the worldwide statistics for melanomas?
leads to >75% of skin cancer deaths
rising incident rates observed world wide
What causes the central depigmented zone?
due to tumour regression
What are the main diagnostic tools for skin cancers?
imaging + skin biopsy
Where can melanomas arise?
•Can arise on mucosal surfaces (e.g. oral, conjunctival, vaginal) and within uveal tract of eye
even internal organs can be affected
What are the different categories fo risk factors for melanomas?
- genetic factors
- environmental factors
- phenotypic
What are the genetic risk factors for melanomas?
- Family history (CNKN2A mutations), MC1R variants
- Lightly pigmented skin
- Red hair
- DNA repair defects (e.g. xeroderma pigmentosum)
What are the environmental risk factors for melanomas?
- Intense intermittent sun exposure
- Chronic sun exposure
- Residence in equatorial latitudes
- Sunbeds
- Immunosuppression
What are the phenotypics risk factors for melanomas?
- >100 Melanocytic nevi
- Atypical melanocytic nevi
nevi = proliferations of melanocytes that are in contact with each other, forming small collections of cells known as nests
What pathway is important in melanoma molecular pathogensis? Why?
- Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) [RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK] pathway
- regulates cellular proliferation, growth and migration
- mutations in this pathway contribute to melanoma growth
What are the different mutations that can lead to melanomas?
- KIT mutation
- NRAS gene
- BRAF gene
- CDKN2A mutations
What do KIT mutations lead to?
- 30-40% of acral and mucosal melanomas
- also melanomas from chronically sun-exposed skin harbour activating mutations or copy number amplifications of KIT gene
What melanomas do mutations in NRAS gene?
15-20% of melanomas
What do mutations in the BRAF gene cause?
- 50-60% of melanomas
- high in melanomas of skin with intermittent UV exposure
- low in melanomas of skin with high cumulative UV exposure
What is the purpose of CDKN2A gene?
- encodes P16 - tumour supressor
- this binds to CDK4/6, preventing formation of cyclin D1-CDK4/6 complex
- Cyclin D1-CDK4/6 complex phosphorylates Rb, inactivating it, leading to E2F release (once released, E2F promotes cell cycle progression)
- therefore prevention of the complex stops cell cycle progression
Why do mutations in the the CDKN2A gene cause melanomas?
can’t encode p16, which stops progression of cell cycle
therefore cell cycle progresses and tumours ariseee
What is the host response to melanomas?
- CD8+ T-cell recognise melanoma-specific antigens and if activated appropriately, are able to kill tumour cells.
- CD4+ helper T-cells and antibodies also play a critical role
- Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is natural inhibitor of T-cell activation by removing the costimulatory signal (B7 on APC to CD28 on T-Cell)
What immunotherapy is based on the CTLA-4 blokade?
ipilimumab
What are the checkpoint inhibitors in our immune system? What do they do?
PD-1, PDL1
they remove the signal “don’t kill cells” and let immune system kill cancer cells
What is the epidemiology of melanomas?
- Increasing worldwide
- Develops predominantly in Caucasian populations
- Incidence low amongst darkly pigmented populations
- 10-19/100,000 per year in Europe
- 60/100,000 per year in Australia / NZ
What are the different subtypes of melanaomas?
- Superficial spreading
- Nodular
- Lentigo maligna
- Acral lentiginous
- Unclassifiable
What percentage of melanomas are superfical spreading?
60-70%, most common type in fair-skinnned individuals
Where do superficial spreading melanomas usually occur?
- Most frequently seen on trunk of men and legs of women
- Can arise de novo or in pre-existing nevus (without mole or form a pre-existing mole)
What are some characterisitics of superficial spreading melanomas?
- assymetry, border irregularity, colour variation, increased diameter
- In up to 2/3 of tumours, regression (visible as grey, hypo-or depigmentation), reflecting the interaction of host immune system with tumour.
How do superficial spreading melanomas grow?
horizontal growth first (this is where all the visibal echaracteristics show e.g. assymmetry)
then vertical growth (this where you get the appearance of a nodule or bump)
What percentage of melanomas do nodular ones represent?
15%-30% of all melanomas
2nd most common type of melanoma of fair-skinned individuals
Where does it usually appear? What is the demographic?
most commonly trunk, head, neck
more present in M than F
What are the characteristics of a nodular melanoma?
- Usually present as blue to black, but sometimes pink to red, nodule – may be ulcerated, bleeding
- Develops rapidly
What is a nodular melanoma with no pigment called?
amelanotic melanoma
How do nodular melanomas grow?
only has vertical growth phase
therefore the characteristics features of horizontal growth (e.g. assymmetry, border irregularity, etc.) are not present or not obvious)
What percentag eof melanomas do lentigo maligna make up?
minority of cutaneous melanomas (around 10%)
What is the demographic of occurence of lentigo maligna? Where does it commonly occur?
- over 60 year olds
- occurs in chronically sun-damaged skin
- most commonly on the face
What do lentigo maligna melanomas look like?
Slow growing, asymmetric brown to black macule with colour variation and an irregular indented border
What are lentigo malignas usually precursors for?
Invasive Lentigo Maligna Melanoma arises in a precursor lesion termed lentigo maligna
therefore a precursor for invasive melanoma
What percentage of lentigo malignas progress?
5% progress to invasive melanomas
What are some of the characteristics of lentigo maligna under dermatoscope?
What percentage of all melanomas are acral lentiginous?
relatievly uncommon, around 5% of all melanomas
When are acral lentiginous melanaomas usually diagnosed?
most freqeuntly in 7th decade of life
Where do acral lentiginous melanomas typically appear?
palms and soles or in and around the nail apparatus
What is the incidence like across all demgraphics?
- Incidence similar across all racial and ethnic groups
- As more darkly pigmented Africans and Asians do not typically develop sun-related melanomas, ALM represents disproportionate percentage of melanomas diagnosed in Afro- Caribbean (up to 70%) or Asians (up to 45%)
What do acral lentiginous melanomas look like?
a black or brown discoloration that appears on the sole of the foot or palm of the hand. It may resemble a bruise or stain, but over time it grows in size
What do acral lentiginous melanomas look like in the nail? What are the characteristics?
melanonychia = brown-black discoloration of the nail plate and the pigment referred to is conventionally melanin
What is an amenalotic melanoma?
What is key to early detection of melanomas?
self-detection - looking for history of change in colour, shape, or size of a pigmented skin lesion
What does the ABCDE public awareness acronym for self-detection stand for?
A = asymmetry
B = border irregularity
C = colour variation
D = diameter greter than 5mm
E = evolving
What is Garbe’s rule?
If a patient is worried about a single skin lesion, do not ignore their suspicion and have a low threshold for performing a biopsy
What can be some diffrential diagnosis for melanomas?
basal cell carcinoma
seborrhoeic keratosis = harmless skin lesions that increase in number wiht age
dermatofibroma = harmless benign skin lesion
What are poor prognostic features of melanomas?
- Increased Breslow thickness >1mm
- Ulceration
- Age
- Male gender
- Anatomical site – trunk, head, neck
- Lymph node involvement
Stage 1A melanoma have 10 year survival of >95% whereas thick melanomas >4mm and ulceration pT4b have a 10 year survival rate of 50%
How is Breslow thickness measured
measurment hitological from granular layer to bottom of tumour
What invetigative tools are used ot identify melanomas?
dermoscopy
- allows you to see through stratum corneum, negating all the refraction that happens at that level
- allows you to observe features that can’t be seen with the naked eye
What are some global features of melanomas on dermoscopy?
- Asymmetry
- Presence of multiple colours
- Reticular, globular, reticular-globular, homogenous
- Starburst
- Atypical network
- streaks
- atypical dots or globules
- irregular blood vessels
- regression structures
- blue-white veil
How important are dermosocpic lesions?
can improve diagnoses by 50%
but should not be taken in isolation
history + risk factor status are also important