Three clues to diagnose melanoma (part 2)

In this month's skin cancer update video, Professor Giuseppe Argenziano continues his short series on pattern analysis in dermoscopy, this time focusing on the three clues to diagnose melanoma: BLINK, THINK, COMPARE.

In the first part of this series, Prof Giuseppe Argenziano gave a brief history of dermoscopy algorithms and explored the foundations of pattern analysis in the diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions.

Missed the first part? Catch up here.

In this new second part, Prof Argenziano walks through the three clues to diagnose melanoma, including dozens of real patient cases.

1. BLINK: As your brain is trained to recognise patterns in dermoscopy in under one second, by looking at the architecture of a lesion you can immediately know what it is. In the video, Prof Argenziano runs through a series of cases to test your ability to identify a lesion in under one second.
2. THINK: Sometimes, in cases where there is a "morphological grey zone", you need to stop and think. That is when you need to take an analytical approach and apply one of the seven melanoma-specific criteria to reach a diagnosis.
3. COMPARE: When neither the 'blink' nor 'think' approach has worked, sometimes you need to compare all the lesions on the body of a person with multiple moles to identify which one stands out from the rest.

See all this and more in the full video below, and keep an eye out for the rest of the series over the coming months.

Watch the full video now:

Prof Giuseppe Argenziano is Professor and Head of the Dermatology Unit at the University of Campania, Naples, Italy; Co-founder and past president of the International Dermoscopy Society; and Editor-in-Chief of Dermatology Practical and Conceptual Journal. His main research field is dermato-oncology, authoring numerous scientific articles and books concerning dermoscopy, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. As coordinator of the Melanoma Unit at the Campania University, he has established a successful tertiary, multidisciplinary, referral center particularly devoted to the diagnosis and management of patients with melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer.

Over the past 25 years, Prof Argenziano has supervised over 500 foreign and Italian residents in dermatology, established scientific collaborations with 1500+ colleagues from more than 50 nations, and organised more than 500 national and international didactic meetings, courses and conferences (such as the Consensus Net Meeting on Dermoscopy and the First Congress of the International Dermoscopy Society).

Prof Argenziano has authored more than 650 full scientific articles and produced landmark primary publications and books in the field of melanoma and dermoscopy. Over the past 25 years he has been invited as speaker and/or chairman in more than 500 national and international conferences in the field of dermatology. His combined publications have received a sum total of 15.250+ citations with an h-index value of 61 (Scopus 2020).