Dermoscopy Can Be Useful in the Differential Diagnosis between Malignant Melanoma and Basal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Dermoscopy has been recently applied to diagnose pigmented tumors. But the criteria for differential diagnosis between nodular melanoma (NM) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) have not been fully established. We examined 3 cases of NM and of BCC dermoscopically, all of which were not diagnosed clinically. As a result, a pigment network (PN) was found in all cases of NM, but not in any cases of BCC. On the other hand, treelike telangiectasia (TT) was observed in all cases of BCC, but in no cases of NM. Our results indicate that dermoscopic features of PN and TT are specific for NM and BCC, respectively, and are valuable for the differential diagnosis between NM and BCC.