title: Cutaneous melanoma: digital dermoscopy-essential tool for positive diagnosis.
abstract: Cutaneous melanoma is a "perfid", aggressive and hard to be treated malignant tumor in case of delayed diagnosis. However, patients still have a chance to escape progressive disease if the lesion is recognized early, when the surgical approach is curative. Dermoscopy has the important advantage of rapidity and non-invasivity in a field with (still) contradictory algorithms of diagnosis and treatment. The recognition of the elementary dermoscopic lesions enables accurate diagnosis for cutaneous melanoma. In our opinion, dermoscopy appears compulsory in the routine dermatologic examination. In vivo microscopy (dermoscopy) together with histopathology (plus or minus immunohistochemistry) seem, at present, to provide the most reliable diagnosis of melanoma.
authors.affiliation: The 1st Department of Dermatology, Colentina Hospital, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania. olgadana@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Simionescu
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Costache
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Testori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D046169:Dermoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008544:Melanocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology