MAL-PDT using a 1-h incubation may be sufficient for successful treatment of selected AK lesions.

Malignant melanoma is a neoplasm that more often tends to undergo regression. Clinically, variation in color is perhaps the most important hallmark of primary cutaneous melanoma. The change in color to white, off-white, blue-white and gray-white is a sign of (spontaneous) regression in malignant melanoma. Histopathologically the process starts with a dense lichenoid infiltrate of lymphocytes, and ends with fibrosis and/or melanosis within a thickened papillary dermis. The dense infiltrate of lymphocytes permeates the thin melanoma and destroys the atypical melanocytes in the epidermis and the papillary dermis. A key concern is how to define regression in a reproducible way. Using the following definition, a statistically significant risk of metastases can be demonstrated in thin melanomas (<1.0 mm) with extensive regression (>50%): "fibroplasia with an absence of epidermal and dermal involvement by melanoma cells, but allowing for (lentiginous) single-cell proliferation of atypical melanocytes along the dermo-epidermal junction".

Our 21 cases reflect in general the literature. Nevertheless, the long persistence of the skin lesions was striking perhaps making the term transient somewhat inaccurate.

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