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Molecular Diagnostics in Melanocytic Tumors: The Pathologists Perspective
Gerardo Ferrara1* and Giuseppina Improta2
1Department of Oncology, Anatomic Pathology Unit, Geatano Rummo General Hospital, Benevento, Italy
2Laboratory of Clinical Research and Advanced Diagnostics, IRCCS-CROB Centro di Riferimento Oncologico della Basilicata, Rionero in Vulture, Italy
- *Corresponding Author:
- Gerardo Ferrara
Department of Oncology
Anatomic Pathology Unit
Geatano Rummo General Hospital
Benevento, Italy
Tel: 39082457315
E-mail: gerardo.ferrara@libero.it
Received: January 27, 2016; Accepted: January 29, 2016; Published: February 01, 2016
Citation: Ferrara G, Improta G (2016) Molecular Diagnostics in Melanocytic Tumors: The Pathologist’s Perspective. Adv Mol Diag 1:102.
Copyright: © 2016 Ferrara G, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
During the last 15 years, molecular techniques have led to a fast gain in our knowledge on the development of melanocytic tumors. The potential implications of these advances for prognosis and therapy of melanoma patients are outstanding. There is, however, an even greater problem which has to be raised: since the histopathological diagnosis of melanoma is matter of considerable disagreement even among experts [1]. Pathologists have been increasingly asking for a molecular ‘key to the code’ in order to overcome the diagnostic limitations of conventional morphology. Table 1 summarizes the main molecular techniques and their expected results in melanoma [2], are these data meaningful also for the histopathological differential diagnosis between ‘nevus’ and ‘melanoma’?
