Fewer moles may be associated with more aggressive melanoma

People with fewer moles may be more at risk for aggressive melanoma than people with many moles, according to research being presented at the American Academy of Dermatology’s 2015 Summer Academy Meeting in New York.

Caroline C. Kim, MD, FAAD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues reviewed charts of 281 patients with melanoma who had visited the medical center in 2013 and 2014, according to a press release. There were 192 patients with fewer than 50 moles and 89 patients with more than 50 moles.

Caroline C. Kim

Thicker, more aggressive melanomas were reported in the patients with fewer moles compared with those with many moles. Patients with a high number of moles and atypical moles had a tendency toward thinner, less aggressive melanomas and were more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age compared with patients with fewer moles, the release reported.

Health care providers may be likely to identify patients with 50 or more moles as being at risk for melanoma and educate them on the risk, Kim reported. People with more than 50 moles may be more likely to visit a dermatologist for skin cancer screenings, which would allow for melanomas to be detected at an earlier stage, according to the release.

Biologic differences between patients with many moles compared with few moles also might be a factor, Kim reported.

“We already know that melanomas are not all the same genetically,” Kim stated in the release. “It’s possible there are different pathways that drive melanoma in these two patient groups, resulting in different degrees of aggressiveness. If patients with fewer moles are more prone to aggressive melanoma, then we need to make sure that they are also being educated and screened, in addition to patients with many moles.”

Additional large-scales studies are needed to confirm study results, according to the release.

Reference: www.aad.org