WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Indoor tanning has gained widespread popularity among adolescents and young adults. Incidence rates of early-onset basal cell carcinoma also appear to be rising. Scant evidence exists on the impacts of early exposure and whether it leads to early occurrence of this malignancy. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:In a US population-based study, indoor tanning was associated with an elevated risk of basal cell carcinomas occurring at or before the age of 50 years, with an increasing trend in risk with younger age at exposure among adolescents and young adults. abstract OBJECTIVE: Indoor tanning with UV radiation-emitting lamps is common among adolescents and young adults. Rising incidence rates of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) have been reported for the United States and elsewhere, particularly among those diagnosed at younger ages. Recent epidemiologic studies have raised concerns that indoor tanning may be contributing to early occurrence of BCC, and younger people may be especially vulnerable to cancer risk associated with this exposure. Therefore, we sought to address these issues in a population-based case-control study from New Hampshire. METHODS:Data on indoor tanning were obtained on 657 cases of BCC and 452 controls #50 years of age.RESULTS: Early-onset BCC was related to indoor tanning, with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.6 (95% confidence interval, 1.3-2.1). The strongest association was observed for first exposure as an adolescent or young adult, with a 10% increase in the OR with each age younger at first exposure (OR per year of age #23 = 1.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.0-1.2). Associations were present for each type of device examined (ie, sunlamps, tanning beds, and tanning booths). CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest early exposure to indoor tanning increases the risk of early development of BCC. They also underscore the importance of counseling adolescents and young adults about the risks of indoor tanning and for discouraging parents from consenting minors to this practice. Pediatrics 2014;134:e4-e12 AUTHORS:

Spontaneous hair repigmentation of physiologically white or gray hair is a rare occurrence that may be associated with melanoma in elderly individuals. We present the first case of this phenomenon in a man. A gray-haired, 80-year-old man presented to dermatology clinic with a 3-cm lock of black hair on his vertex scalp that developed over 1 year. Punch biopsies showed an increase in junctional dendritic melanocytes with rare pagetoid cells and extension along the follicular outer root sheath epithelium and interfollicular epidermis, associated with prominent dendritic melanocytic hyperplasia and pigment-containing melanocytes within the hair bulbs. Although the findings on the biopsies were not diagnostic of melanoma in situ, an irregular interfollicular distribution of melanocytes was concerning for an adjacent atypical process. A complete excision was performed and revealed melanoma in situ, lentigo maligna type. Rare reports describe spontaneous hair repigmentation as a harbinger of lentigo maligna in women. Repigmentation can occur in the setting of proliferation of malignant pigment-producing melanocytes or by paracrine stimulation of benign bulbar melanocytes through receptor tyrosine kinase KIT activation. Presence of prominent dendritic melanocytic hyperplasia and pigment-containing melanocytes within the hair bulbs in our patient's biopsies was suggestive of paracrine or physiologic stimulation of bulbar melanocytes. Given the importance of early melanoma detection and the low visibility of the scalp, this report raises awareness of an extraordinary presentation of lentigo maligna and exemplifies the importance of close clinicopathologic correlation to ensure optimal clinical management and patient outcome.

No abstract

Background: Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays are well-established molecular tests for the analysis of challenging melanocytic lesions. A 23-gene expression signature (GES), marketed as myPath Melanoma, is a recently introduced molecular test that categorizes melanocytic lesions as “benign,” “malignant,” and “indeterminate.” There are few studies on the concordance between FISH, SNP, and GES in the analysis of melanocytic lesions. Methods: A single-institution retrospective analysis of 61 contiguous cases of challenging melanocytic lesions with molecular analysis by 2 or more techniques. The primary objective was to determine the intertest agreement, which was calculated as percent agreement. A secondary objective was to determine the combined-test performance, that is, the frequency of obtaining a successful test (a test with an abnormal or normal, benign or malignant result) when 2 or more molecular tests were performed. Results: Of the 61 cases, 58 cases were submitted for analysis using the GES assay, 44 cases were submitted for FISH analysis, and 21 cases were submitted for SNP array analysis. Percent agreement between GES and FISH array was 50.9% (18/34), which improved to 69.7% (18/23) when indeterminate/equivocal results were excluded. Similarly, percent agreement between GES and SNP array was 57.1% (8/14); this improved to 77.8% (7/9) when indeterminate/equivocal results were excluded. In 44% of cases submitted for GES and FISH and in 39% of cases submitted for GES and SNP, one test was successful and the other was not. Conclusion: For challenging melanocytic lesions, the choice of a molecular test is consequential as the GES assay correlated with FISH and SNP arrays approximately only half of the time. This improved when cases with indeterminate/equivocal results were excluded from the calculations. The combined-test analysis supports the utility of conducting more than one molecular test, as this increased the odds of obtaining a successful test.