What about acral lentiginous melanoma?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1133

Published 6 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1133
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1133

Letters

Sun and melanoma

What about acral lentiginous melanoma?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

I have just finished writing a short update review on cutaneousmelanoma for a local journal, and a point of note is the ethnocentricityof the melanoma debate.¹ ² I have no doubt that sun exposurebut also major attacks on the immune system such as criticallife events are involved in the superficial spreading and nodularmelanomas in white people but what about the acral lentiginoustype? Although this accounts for only 2% of melanomas in whitepeople, it accounts for more than 50% in our local Chinese population,and I have yet to see anyone sunbathing in Hong Kong with theirfeet in the air.

Malignant melanoma is a fascinating but also potentially terribledisease, but whatever the mechanism, it is the melanocyte thatis the cause. As an aside, melanocytes, in health and disease,are possibly responsible for more personal and interpersonaldistress than any other single cell . . . [Full text of this article]

Andrew Burd, professor of plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery

¹ Chinese University of Hong Kong

andrewburd@surgery.cuhk.edu.hk