Linear Malignant Melanoma In Situ: Reports and Review of Cutaneous Malignancies Presenting as Linear Skin Cancer

Abstract

Melanomas usually present as oval lesions in which the borders may be irregular. Other morphological features of melanoma include clinical asymmetry, variable color, diameter greater than 6 mm and evolving lesions. Two males whose melanoma in situ presented as linear skin lesions are described and cutaneous malignancies that may appear linear in morphology are summarized in this report. A medical literature search engine, PubMed, was used to search the following terms: cancer, cutaneous, in situ, linear, malignant, malignant melanoma, melanoma in situ, neoplasm, and skin. The 25 papers that were generated by the search and their references, were reviewed; 10 papers were selected for inclusion. The cancer of the skin typically presents as round lesions. However, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma may arise from primary skin conditions or benign skin neoplasms such as linear epidermal nevus and linear porokeratosis. In addition, linear tumors such as basal cell carcinoma can occur. The development of linear cutaneous neoplasms may occur secondary to skin tension line or embryonal growth patterns (as reflected by the lines of Langer and lines of Blaschko) or exogenous factors such as prior radiation therapy. Cutaneous neoplasms and specifically melanoma in situ can be added to the list of linear skin lesions.

Tattoo-Associated Basal Cell Carcinoma: Coincident or Coincidence

“…The tumor morphology of the other 12 patients included ulcers or ulcerated lesions (4 tumors), plaques (3 tumors, 1 of which was crusted and nodular and another that was ulcerated and linear), nodules (2 tumors, 1 of which was not only ulcerated but also pedunculated and umbrella-shaped), and papules (2 tumors, 1 of which was infiltrated) and a cystic lesion (1 tumor). Linear cutaneous malignancies -either melanoma or nonmelanoma skin cancers -similar to that observed on the reported patient, are not commonly described [26,27].…”

Dermoscopy of linear basal cell carcinomas, a potential mimicker of linear lesions: a descriptive case series

“…The reason why certain BCCs tend to grow within these lines while and others grow in a more haphazard fashion remains unknown. Other tumors such as melanoma have also been reported to grow in a linear fashion [16].…”

Basal cell carcinoma in situ of the skin revisited: case reports of the superficial type and fibroepithelioma type of this in situ cutaneous neoplasm

“…Squamous cell carcinoma, malignant melanoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma are invasive cutaneous tumors [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. In contrast, in situ variants of these malignancies are characterized by neoplasms in which tumor cells are restricted to the epidermis [3,7,8,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Cutaneous basal cell carcinoma in situ is a recently proposed variant of basal cell carcinoma of the skin [32].…”