Abstract

In the concept of MDM, the term melanoma has been reserved for lesions showing a vertical growth component. Vertical growth, divorced from any prognostic implications, is simply a morphologic designation. Such a maneuver also serves to validate the category of MDM, although it might then be inappropriate to characterize such lesions as melanoma. From my view, the modifier "minimal deviation" takes the onus of prognosis out of the equation. For common melanomas, size of a vertical growth component has relativity to prognosis. It is unlikely that, in comparable size-ranges, the MDM have a more aggressive nature than the common melanoma. It seems appropriate to propose that MDM measuring less than 1.5 mm in vertical dimensions could be characterized as melanocytic neoplasia of indeterminant malignant potential. Those less than 1 mm in vertical dimensions would be borderline variants and those in the range of 1 to 1.5 mm would be intermediate examples. Those greater than 1.5 mm could be characterized as melanocytic neoplasias of indeterminant (uncertain) malignant potential without additional qualifications.