• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2015

Melanoma is originated from the melanocyte producing the melanin which determines the complexion, and it has the highest mortality among skin cancers. Acral lentiginous melanoma(ALM) arises from extremities such as hands, feet or fingernails. Since the appearance of ALM is different from melanoma on the body, conventional auto diagnosis systems for melanoma is inappropriate to detect ALM. Therefore, ALM is typically difficult to distinguish from general nevus, resulting in delayed diagnosis and bad prognosis. In this paper, we firstly introduce a determination method for ALM by dermatologists and propose a method to rotate dermoscopic images automatically as a pre-processing for facilitating the easy determination of ALM and to select the optimal value of the Gaussian differentiation filter parameter which is significant for precise pattern extraction using the scale space analysis. From experimental results, it is shown that there exists the consistency between empirical values of the Gaussian differential filter parameter and optimal values derived from the scale space analysis to distinguish nevus and ALM.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10451-10456
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• 2015

Background: We defined melanoma distribution in a large series of Turkish patients and evaluated the prognostic parameters of melanomas. Materials and Methods: A total of 1574 patients' data was retrospectively collected at 18 centers in Turkey. Demographic characteristics were questioned and noted. Prognostic parametres were evaluated based on sentinel lymph node involvement. Results: Mean age was 56.7 (4-99) years. While 844 (53.6%) cases were male, 730 (46.4%) cases were female. One thousand four hundred forty-seven (92%) cases were invasive melanoma and 127 (8%) cases were in-situ melanoma. The most common histopathological form was the superficial spreading melanoma (SSM) which was found in 549 patients (37.9%). It was followed by nodular melanoma in 379 (26.2%), acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) in 191 (13.2%) and lentigo maligna melanoma in 132 (9.1%), respectively. On univariate analysis, lymphovascular invasion (p<0.001), tumor thickness (p<0.001), histopathological subtype (p<0.001), Clark level (p=0.001), ulceration (p<0.001), ${\geq}6/mm^2$ mitosis (p=0.005), satellite formation (p=0.001) and gender (p=0.03) were found to be associated with sentinel lymph node positivity. Regression was associated with sentinel lymph node negativity (p=0.017). According to multivariate analysis, lymphovascular invasion and tumor thickness were significant independent predictive factors of SLN positivity. Patient age, tumor localization, precursor lesions, lymphocytic infiltration and neurotropism were not related with sentinel lymph node involvement. Conclusions: In this retrospective analysis, it was found that the prevalence of SSM is at a lower rate while the prevalence of ALM is at a higher rate when compared to western countries. According to Breslow index; most of the melanoma lesions' thickness were greater than 2 mm, corresponding Clark IV. Vascular invasion and tumor thickness are the most important factors for sentinel lymph node involvement.