Preliminary Evaluation of Reflectance Confocal Microscopy Features of Scalp Melanoma

The document reports on a retrospective observational study from the Skin Cancer Unit of Reggio Emilia, Italy, which assessed scalp melanoma characteristics using dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) from 2011 to 2016. The study involved 19 cases of histopathologically confirmed scalp melanoma, primarily in bald men over 65 years old, with the superficial spreading type being most common. Dermoscopic analysis identified regression, atypical pseudo-network, and irregular pigmented blotches as frequent features, while RCM revealed irregular meshwork and pagetoid infiltration of atypical cells as common patterns. The study concluded that RCM is a useful diagnostic tool for scalp melanomas, which show similar features to trunk melanomas, but emphasized the need for further research with larger sample sizes to corroborate these findings.