B. Fazaa et al., NUCLEAR MORPHOMETRY IN XERODERMA PIGMENTOSUM-ASSOCIATED MALIGNANT MELANOMAS, The American journal of dermatopathology, 16(6), 1994, pp. 611-614
Previous clinical observations have indicated that the metastatic pote
ntial for thick malignant melanoma is lower for patients with xeroderm
a pigmentosum than for other patients. In a prospective study using co
mputerized image analysis to measure the morphometric characteristics
of nuclei in these neoplasms, we found that the nuclei of malignant me
lanoma cells were smaller and more ovoid in patients with xeroderma pi
gmentosum than in other patients. Objective evaluation and grading of
these subtle histopathologic variables could provide a means of establ
ishing prognostic factors unrelated to the thickness of the neoplasm.