Juvenile Melanomas of Children and Adults and Melanocarcinomas of Children

Abstract

The histologic criteria for the diagnosis of the juvenile melanoma, which were first defined in 1949 by the late Dr. Sophie Spitz in the initial and definitive contribution to the subject, have proved of immeasurable practical value and are still entirely applicable.¹It is generally recognized that the lucidity of her perceptive analysis has permitted widespread confirmation.^2,3However, it seems inherent in the nature of pathologic histology that no amount of words or photomicrographs is ever totally adequate for the transmission of all the nuances of a newly appreciated morphologic entity. This fact was just as pertinent to the development, over a period of almost two decades, of a general appreciation of the morphology, histogenesis, and specificity of diabetic glomerulosclerosis, to cite another and parallel example, as it is now for the juvenile melanoma. From a survey of the literature, and, more vividly, from the perspective gained through