Histopathological Characteristics of Cutaneous Melanoma in Isfahan, Iran, from 2013 to 2018

Zahra Malakoutikhah; Fatemeh Mohaghegh; Siavash Karimi; Parvin Rajabi; Elham T Tabatabaei

doi:10.1155/2022/4490648

Histopathological Characteristics of Cutaneous Melanoma in Isfahan, Iran, from 2013 to 2018

J Skin Cancer. 2022 Sep 19:2022:4490648. doi: 10.1155/2022/4490648. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zahra Malakoutikhah¹, Fatemeh Mohaghegh², Siavash Karimi³, Parvin Rajabi⁴, Elham T Tabatabaei²

Affiliations

¹ Applied Physiology Research Center, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
² Department of Dermatology, Skin Diseases and Leishmaniasis Research Center, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
³ School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
⁴ Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the histopathological characteristics of cutaneous melanoma in Isfahan from 2013 to 2018, according to histopathological subtype, lesions location, Clark level, and Breslow thickness.

Methods: A descriptive, retrospective study in reports of Alzahra Hospital and Dr. Rajabi Pathology Laboratory in Isfahan.

Results: In total, 45 patients were included in this study. The most prevalent histopathological subtype was acral lentiginous melanoma (48.89%), followed by lentigo maligna melanoma (17.78%), nodular melanoma (11.11%), and superficial spreading melanoma (8.89%). Most malignant lesions were on the foot and toes (31.1%) and face (24.4%). Tumor invasion level was mainly at Clark level IV (42.2%). Furthermore, the mean depth of tumor penetration (Breslow thickness) was 3.87 ± 3.35.

Conclusions: Our study revealed the characteristics of melanoma in the Iranian population. Our results showed a similar trend with previous studies in the Asian population. Further investigations are needed to elucidate the role of ethnic and environmental risk factors for developing melanoma in different populations.