Lymph Node, Metastatic melanoma & Nodal nevus [LMP47099]

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Diagnostic Modality: 
Whole Slide Image
Disease Category: 
Neoplasia
Diagnosis: 
Metastatic melanoma & Nodal nevus
Species: 
Human
Organ System: 
Skin
Gender: 
Male
Age: 
61 years
Diagnosis Code: 
ICD-10: C77 | ICD-O: 8000/6
Slide Contributor Information
Sam, L., Sade, S.

Keywords

metastatic, melanoma, sentinel lymph node, sentinel, nodal nevus

Clinical History

61-year-old male with history of melanoma on his back and many tattoos on the skin. The specimen is a sentinel lymph node biopsy.

Clinical Discussion

Malignant melanoma is a malignant skin neoplasm, which arises from melanocytes, represents about 5% of all skin cancers, but according to the American Cancer Society, causes 77% of all skin cancer-related deaths.

Clinically, melanoma can develop in anyone, in any age, in any cutaneous location and is especially common on the head and neck, upper back, and lower extremities. It can arise spontaneously or within the preexisting nevus. Moreover, metastases in regional lymph nodes are common. The sentinel lymph node is the first node to be involved by malignant cells. According to most published data, lymph node status is one of the most important predictors of melanoma recurrence and survival.

Nodal nevus is an aggregation of cytologically bland nevus cells. Benign nevus cells present in the capsule of the lymph node. By contrast, malignant melanoma is an ill-defined, large aggregation of cytologically malignant and atypical cells and are seen predominantly in the sub-capsular or intra-parencymal portion of the lymph node.

In this case, both malignant melanoma and nevus are seen in one lymph node, in two different areas.