Diagnostiek van gepigmenteerde huidafwijkingen: hoe een maligne melanoom te onderkennen

- An accurate answer to the clinical question of whether a pigmented skin lesion has become a malignant melanoma or not is difficult because of the clinical variability of this lesion.

- Because of the low incidence of 2400 new melanoma cases each year in the Netherlands, a general practitioner only sees one new case every 3-4 years.

- The best way to distinguish between a benign lesion and a malignant melanoma is the combined use of several criteria, such as in the ABCD-formula: asymmetry, border irregularity, colour variation and a diameter > 6 mm.

- Dermatoscopical examination, provided that the technique is used by well-trained and experienced physicians, is a valuable adjunct to clinical examination.

- A pigmented lesion should always be excised if there is not enough convincing evidence to exclude its malignant nature.

- Histological classification of pigmented lesions may prove difficult because of morphological overlap between benign and malignant melanocytic tumours.