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Evolution of a 4 mm nodular melanoma. Nodular melanoma (NM) is the most aggressive form of melanoma. [1] It tends to grow more rapidly in thickness (vertically penetrate the skin) than in diameter compared to other melanoma subtypes. [2] Instead of arising from a pre-existing mole, it may appear in a spot where a lesion did not previously exist.
However, a melanocytic nevus is benign, and melanoma is malignant. Most melanocytic nevi never evolve into a cancer, with the lifetime risk for an individual nevus being 1 in 3000 for men and 1 in 11 000 for women. [5] Moreover, dermatologists have a standardized system for determining whether a skin lesion is suspicious for malignant melanoma.
Data on the chances of transformation from melanocytic nevus to melanoma is controversial, but it appears that about 10% of malignant melanomas have a precursor lesion, of which about 10% are melanocytic nevi. Therefore, it appears that malignant melanoma quite seldom (1% of cases) has a melanocytic nevus as a precursor. [9]
The word melanoma has a long history of being used in a broader sense to refer to any melanocytic tumor, typically, but not always malignant, [170] [171] but today the narrower sense referring only to malignant types has become so dominant that benign tumors are usually not called melanomas anymore and the word melanoma is now usually taken to ...
Murphy, George F. "Case 12: Melanocytic tumor of uncertain malignant potential (MELTUMP)". In Artur Zembowicz (ed.). Cases in Dermatopathology: Common Problems in Diagnosis of Pigmented Lesions. Los Gatos, California: Knowledge Books and Software. pp. 73– 80. ISBN 1-74162-088-0
Congenital nevus. Note the variable coloration and slightly irregular border. The congenital melanocytic nevus appears as a circumscribed, light brown to black patch or plaque, potentially very heterogeneous in consistency, covering any size surface area and any part of the body.