title: Morphology of melanocytic lesions in situ.
abstract: Melanoma is a solid tumour with its own specificity from the biological and morphological viewpoint. On one hand, numerous mutations are already known affecting different pathways. They usually concern proliferation rate, apoptosis, cell senescence and cell behaviour. On the other hand, several visual criteria at the tissue level are used by physicians in order to diagnose skin lesions. Nevertheless, the mechanisms between the changes from the mutations at the cell level to the morphology exhibited at the tissue level are still not fully understood. Using physical tools, we develop a simple model. We demonstrate analytically that it contains the necessary ingredients to understand several specificities of melanoma such as the presence of microstructures inside a skin lesion or the absence of a necrotic core. We also explain the importance of senescence for growth arrest in benign skin lesions. Thanks to numerical simulations, we successfully compare this model to biological data.
authors.affiliation: 1] Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France [2] Institut Universitaire de Cancérologie, Faculté de médecine, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, 91 boulevard de l'hôpital, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Thibaut
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Balois
authors.affiliation: 1] Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France [2] Institut Universitaire de Cancérologie, Faculté de médecine, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, 91 boulevard de l'hôpital, 75013 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ben Amar
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008544:Melanocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D008545:Melanoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D009154:Mutation; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*