Dermoscopy: distinguishing malignant tumors from benign

Abstract

Dermoscopy has dramatically developed, becoming a well-established routine technique in many countries in the mid-1980s. Dermoscopy allows physicians to observe structures and colors otherwise not visible to unaided eyes, increasing melanoma diagnostic accuracy by up to 35%. Moreover, dermoscopy allows for increases in the number of diagnosed and excised melanomas together with a reduction in the number of unnecessary excisions. New data are continuously acquired mostly on melanoma diagnosis, follow-up of melanocytic lesions and nevogenesis. Short-term 3-month follow-up is the optimum time interval for identifying minimal changes in featureless melanomas. Nevertheless, long-term follow-up is similarly useful for the recognition of changes in melanomas with very low rates of growth. In the last few years a huge number of publications on dermoscopy have been published. The aim of this review is to summarize the most important recent advances in dermoscopy.