title: Melanoma of the heel  a case series of a rare melanoma subtype.
abstract: Melanoma of the heel is a rare subtype of the disease, which shows some variations of its incidence in different geographic areas as well as atypical clinical manifestations, resembling numerous other dermatologic conditions, which often leads to misdiagnosis at the early stages of the disease. We present a case series of four patients with malignant melanoma of the heel, with delay of diagnosis due to their atypical presentation, which is illustrated by tumor thickness, Clark level (VI and V), and tumor stage. All of the reported cases are from our own files and demonstrate the challenges with melanoma of the heel, with the aim to emphasize the necessity to biopsy all lesions with unknown significance to avoid the delay in diagnosis and prevent wrong subsequential treatments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Allergology, Academic Teaching Hospital Dresden-Friedrichstadt, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wollina
authors.affiliation: Onkoderma-Policlinic for Dermatology, Venereology and Dermatologic surgery, Sofia, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tchernev
authors.affiliation: Onkoderma-Policlinic for Dermatology, Venereology and Dermatologic surgery, Sofia, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Chokoeva
authors.affiliation: Professor and Chair of Dermatology University of Rome G. Marconi Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lotti