Academic Edge

Dr. Rigel presented recent work which demonstrated that the dermal tumor volume appears to be a superior method for assessing prognosis of melanomas as compared to thickness alone. This comparison held even when doing multivariate analysis. A dermal tumor volume of 200 mm3 appeared to delineate between good and poor prognosis. The dermal tumor volume was computed using histologic material from melanomas that have been stepsectioned at 2 mm intervals. The sections were then individually examined and measured at 0.5 mm intervals. These data were then entered into an IBM PC-XT computer. The dermal volume for each of the stepsectioned melanomas was computed as well as the surface area and the volume to area ratios. This ratio, which is essentially a measure of the irregularity of the tumor surface, may prove in the future to be even a better measure of patient prognosis than dermal tumor volume alone.