ULTRASONOGRAPHY FOR LOCOREGIONAL STAGING AND FOLLOW-UP OF CUTANEOUS MELANOMA

• Autor(a) principal: Cabete, Joana
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Serrão, Vasco, João, Alexandre, Rapprich, Stefan
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.29021/spdv.73.1.344
• topic: Melanoma; ultrasonography; Neoplasm staging; Skin neoplasms; Melanoma; ultrassonografia; Neoplasias da pele; Estadiamento de neoplasias

Ultrasonography gained a wider applicability in Dermatology with the emergence of higher frequency probes that allow the visualization of lesions in the skin and subcutaneous tissue. High-resolution ultrasound has developed particularly in the field of malignant melanoma, and has positioned itself not only as an image complement to physical examination, but also as a locoregional staging technique. In fact, ultrasonography is more sensitive than lymph node palpation, it is superior to other imaging techniques when it comes to the early detection of locoregional metastasis and, when performed preliminarily in combination with fine needle aspiration cytology, it may reduce the number of sentinel- -node biopsies. Presently, available studies suggest that ultrasound has a relevant part in the evaluation of locoregional disease, particularly in patients with intermediate or high-risk cutaneous melanoma.