Abstract
The sentence “we are born and we will die without nevi” summarizes one of the key components of the diagnosis of atypical lesions in the elderly. Epidemiologic data demonstrated that the nevus count and prevailing nevus patterns are strongly influenced by age. Notably, nevus count increases from childhood to midlife and decreases thereafter. In light of these findings, if evolving nevi in adolescence are an expected finding and therefore do not require further interventions, a melanocytic skin lesion showing signs of growth in the elderly should raise the index for malignancy. Furthermore, any flat acquired melanocytic lesion in this age should be considered with caution since the majority of lesions in the elderly are persistent intradermal nevi (congenital type). Firstly termed as atypical lentiginous junctional melanocytic proliferations, indeed they are regarded nowadays as melanomas.
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Longo, C., Argenziano, G., Lallas, A., Moscarella, E., Piana, S. (2018). Flat Solitary Pigmented Lesions in the Elderly. In: Atlas of Diagnostically Challenging Melanocytic Neoplasms. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48653-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48653-6_1
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