Oncology and Haematology Flashcards
a) What is the most common Melanoma?
b) What is the most common melanoma in blacks, Asians, and Hispanics? What is it’s appearance and most common location? (pictured)
c) Describe 3 characteristics of a nodular melanoma
d) Describe Lentigo maligna melanoma
e) Describe dysplastic naevi
a) Superficial Spreading Melanoma
b) Acral lentiginous melanoma. An enlarging hyperpigmented macule or plaque on the palms/soles
c) Rapidly growing, often ulcerated or crusted black nodule.
d) Occurs on sun-exposed skin, often large, hyperpigmented macule or plaque with irregular borders and variable pigmentation (pictured).
e) Benign, irregularly pigmented and shaped with some atypical cellular features (frequently associated with familial melanoma).
a) Where are melanocytes derived and where do they migrate to?
a) Melanocytes originate from neural crest cells and migrate to the skin, meninges, mucous membranes (nasal cavity, paranasal sinus, oral cavity, GIT, CNS, vulva/vagina, and uveal tract of the eye), upper oesophagus, and eyes.
NB: Melanocytes can undergo malignant transformation at all of these sites, however the most common is the skin.
a) What are the strongest risk factors for developing melanoma?
b) The presence of how many naevi infers an increased risk?
c) What percentage of melanomas arise from naevi?
d) What is the lifetime risk for an individula with clinically atypical moles and a strong family hx of melanoma?
a) Presence of multiple benign or atypical naevi and a family or personal hx of melanoma
b) The presence of >40 melanocytic naevi, common or dysplastic, is a marker for increased risk.
c) ~25% of melanomas are histologically associated with naevi, but the majority arise de novo
d) ~50% lifetime risk. Warrants close f/u with dermatologist.
a) What are the size classifications of melanocytic naevi? and what size poses the highest risk?
b) What is the liklihood of congenital melanocytic naevi developing into melanoma? What is the best management option for these naevi?
a) Small (<1.5cm), medium (1.5-20cm), and giant (>20cm). Gant melanocytic naevus (bathing trunk naevus) has the highest risk, prophylactic excision early in life is often prudent.
b) Risk for a typical naevus is low, ~0.03% (1 in 3164) for men and 0.009% (1 in 10,800) for women. Management is controversial as surgery cannot remove all at risk naevus, therefore excision is primarily based on histologic findings from biopsies of clinically stypical naevi.
a) After diagnosis of melanoma, what is the individuals lifetime risk in comparison to the general population, and how long should surveillance continue?
b) What is the risk of melanoma for patients with a family history, and what are the true signs of familial melanoma?
a) LIfetime risk is 10x greater than the general population and surveillance should be lifelong.
b) First-degree relatives have 2x greater risk of developing melanoma. (NB: Only 5-10% of melnomas are truly familial). In familial melanoma, patients tend to be younger at Dx, lesions are thinner, and multiple primary melanomas are common.
a) What percentage of melanomas are due to germline mutations in the cell cycle?
b) What locus & chromosome mutations/deletion is involved in most cutaneous melanoma?
c) What two tumour-suppressor proteins does this locus encode?
d) What is the function of the above 2 tumour supporessor proteins, and what is the end result if CDKN2A is deleted?
a) 20-40% of hereditary melanoma (0.2-2% of all melanoma).
b) 70% of all cutaneous melanoma have mutations or deletions affecting CDKN2A locus on chromosome 9p21
c) p16 and ARF (p14ARF)
d) p16 protein inhibits CDK4/6-mediated phosphorylation and inactivation of the retinoblastoma (RB) protein, whereas ARF inhibits MDM2 ubiquitin-mediated degradation of p53. If CDKN2A is deleted, this results in inactivation of two critical tumor-suppressor pathways, RB and p53, which control entry of cells into the cell cycle.
a) What other cancer is associated with CDKN2A mutations?
b) What is another high risk locus and chromosome associated with melanoma suseptibility? What is it’s role?
c) What pathway do they inactivate?
d) What 2 rarer germline mutations predispose to both familial and sporadic melanomas?
a) Pancreatic cancer
b) CDK4, on chromosome 12q13. It encodes the kinase inhibited by p16
c) Inactivate RB pathway.
NB: CDK4 mutations are much rarer than CDKN2A mutations.
d) Melanoma lineage-specific oncogene microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) mutations predispose to both familial and sporadic melanomas.
a) What inherited gene associated with increased melanoma susceptibility is associated with red hair?
b) What stimulates MC1R and what is it’s function?
c) How is MC1R associated with red hair?
a) Melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene
b) Solar radiation stimulates the production of melanocortin (α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone [α-MSH]), the ligand for MC1R, which is a G-protein-coupled receptor that signals via cyclic AMP and regulates the amount and type of pigment produced.
c) MC1R is highly polymorphic, with 80 variants. Those that result in partial loss of signaling lead to the production of red/yellow pheomelanins, which are not sun-protective and produce red hair (rather than brown/black eumelanins that are photoprotective).
a) What is the phenotypical appearance and skin risks in relation to Red Hair Colour (RHC)?
b) What is the risk of pheomelanin vs eumelanin?
c) What are some other more common, low-penetrance polymorphisms that affect melanoma susceptibility?
a) Fair skin, red hair, freckles, increased sun sensitivity, and increased risk of melanoma.
b) Increased pheomelanin production in patients with inactivating polymorphisms of MC1R also provides a UV-independent carcinogenic risk of melanomagenesis via oxidative damage and reduced DNA damage repair.
c) Genes related to pigmentation, nevus count, immune responses, DNA repair, metabolism, and the vitamin D receptor.
a) What are the primary prevention methods for melanoma?
b) What are the secondary prevention methods for melanoma?
c) What is tertiary prevention of melanoma?
a) Regular use of broad-spectrum sunscreens that block UVA and UVB with (SPF)> 30 and protective clothing. Avoidance of sunburns, tanning beds, and midday sun exposure is recommended.
b) Education-patients should be taught to recognise the clinical features of melanoma, screening-full body skin exam (may be at increased intervals depending on risk factors), and early detection e.g. biopsy.
c) Lifetime surveillance with full body skin exams by a deramtologist.
a) What is the ABCDEs approach to identifying melanoma?
a) Asymmetry; border irregularity; color variation (benign lesions usually have uniform light or dark pigment); diameter >6 mm; and evolving (change in size/shape/color/elevation or new symptoms e.g bleeding, itching, crusting).
NB: Naevus that appears atypical and different from the rest of the naevi on that individual (an “ugly duckling”) should be considered suspicious.
a) What are the optimal factors involved in a full skin check?
a) -Examination of the entire skin surface including scalp, mucous membranes and nails
- Bright room illumination
- Hand lens with low-level magnification with polarised light (may allow more precise visualisation of patterns of pigmentation possible for the naked eye)
- Resources to biopsy suspicious lesions
- Chart or photography for suspicious lesions
a) What margins are suggested for an excisional biopsy?
b) What are the types of biopsy?
c) What is the aim of biopsy and what are the limitations of Shave biopsies?
d) What should the biopsy report include?
e) What is the breslow thickness?
f) What other options are there to distinguish challenging benign naevi from melanomas?
a) 1-3mm margin for excisional biopsy
b) Fusiform (ellipse excision), Tangential (shave), Incisional (incomplete excision) NB: Incisional biopsy does not appear to facilitate spread of melanoma.
c) The aim of the biopsy is to assess the deep and peripheral margins and to perform immunohistochemistry. Shave/tangential biopsies are an acceptable alternative (if the suspicion of malignancy is low), however it may be difficult to get to the deepest margin.
d) Breslow thickness, mitotic rate, presence/absence of ulceration and lymphatic invasion, microsatellitosis and peripheral and deep margin status.
e) Breslow thickness is the greatest thickness of a primary cutaneous melanoma measured on the slide from the top of the epidermal granular layer, or from the ulcer base, to the bottom of the tumor.
f) Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with multiple probes and comparative genome hybridization (CGH) can be helpful.
a) What are the 5 major types of cutaneous melanoma?
b) What types have a period of radial growth, where size increases but it does not penetrate? NB: This is the time melanoma is most likely to be cured with surgical excision.
c) What type of cutaneous melanoma does not have a radial growth phase?
d) Describe the characteristics of desmoplastic melanoma?
a) Superficial spreading melanoma, Lentigo melanoma maligna, acral lentinginous melanoma, nodular melnoma and Desmoplastic melanoma.
b) Superficial spreading melanoma, Lentigo melanoma maligna & acral lentinginous melanoma.
c) Nodular melanoma. Usually presents as a deeply invasive lesion that is capable of early metastasis.
d) Desmoplastic melanoma is associated with a fibrotic response, neural invasion, and greater tendency for local recurrence.
NB: Melanomas can also be amelanotic, which are Dx microscopically.
NB: Although these subtypes are clinically distinct, this classification has minimal prognostic value and is not part of staging.
a) Melanomagenesis (pathogenesis of melanomas) arises from environmental and genetic components. Describe the environmental component and how this affects the skin
b) How is UVR exposure implicated in Melanomas?
a) Major effect of UV solar radiation is to cause genetic changes in the skin. However, it also impairs cutaneous immune function, increases production of growth factors, and induces the formation of DNA-damaging reactive oxygen species that affect keratinocytes and melanocytes.
b) Melanomas arising in chronic sun-damaged skin harbor substantially more mutations than melanomas from non-sun-damaged skin. The majority (76% primary tumors and 84% of metastatic melanomas) exhibit a mutation signature indicating UVR exposure.