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Ultrasound of Cutaneous Melanoma: Primary Tumor Assessment and Locoregional Staging

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Textbook of Dermatologic Ultrasound

Abstract

Cutaneous melanoma is dramatically increasing in frequency, and it represents quite an aggressive tumor when evolving to the metastatic stage. High-resolution ultrasound (US) is playing a growing role in assessing newly diagnosed cutaneous melanoma in the locoregional staging prior to the sentinel lymph node biopsy procedure and in the melanoma patient follow-up. Primary melanoma assessment with US requires a rigorous methodology to allow a sonographic measurement of tumor thickness adequately reflecting pathological measurement. Several challenging aspects exist. Appropriate equipment setting and adequate knowledge of the very peculiar way of spread of melanoma and the related grayscale and color Doppler features are mandatory. US can be valuable in assessing superficial melanoma metastases’ response to newly developed local or systemic therapies. Finally, US may guide percutaneous procedures in the melanoma patient, both diagnostic and therapeutic.

To the memory of Christiane Voit, passionate melanoma ultrasound expert

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Abbreviations

CLND:

Complete lymph node dissection

CT:

Computed tomography

EFOV:

Extended field-of-view

FNAC:

Fine needle aspiration cytology

L/T:

Longitudinal-to-transverse ratio

PET:

Positron-emission tomography

SLN:

Sentinel lymph node

SLNB:

Sentinel lymph node biopsy

US:

Ultrasound

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  1. Department of Radiology, Varelli Diagnostic Institute, Naples, Italy

    Orlando Catalano

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  1. Orlando Catalano
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Correspondence to Orlando Catalano .

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  1. Institute for Diagnostic Imaging and Research of the Skin and Soft Tissues, Santiago, RM, Chile

    Ximena Wortsman

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Catalano, O. (2022). Ultrasound of Cutaneous Melanoma: Primary Tumor Assessment and Locoregional Staging. In: Wortsman, X. (eds) Textbook of Dermatologic Ultrasound. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08736-3_10

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