Cutaneous melanoma primary site is linked to nevus density

// Alejandro Martin-Gorgojo 1, * , Marta Llinares 2, * , Amaya Viros 3, 4, * , Celia Requena 2 , Zaida Garcia-Casado 5 , Victor Traves 6 , Rajiv Kumar 7 and Eduardo Nagore 2, 8 1 Escuela de Doctorado, Universidad Catolica de Valencia “San Vicente Martir”, Valencia, Spain 2 Department of Dermatology, Instituto Valenciano de Oncologia (IVO), Valencia, Spain 3 Skin Cancer and Ageing Laboratory, CRUK Manchester Institute, Manchester, UK 4 Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK 5 Department of Molecular Biology, Instituto Valenciano de Oncologia (IVO), Valencia, Spain 6 Department of Pathology, Instituto Valenciano de Oncologia (IVO), Valencia, Spain 7 Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany 8 Dermatology Department, School of Medicine, Universidad Catolica de Valencia “San Vicente Martir”, Valencia, Spain * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Eduardo Nagore, email: eduardo_nagore@ono.com Keywords: melanoma; nevus; risk; sunburn; solar elastosis Received: July 20, 2017 Accepted: September 23, 2017 Published: October 24, 2017 ABSTRACT There are at least two pathways driving cutaneous melanoma; one is linked to an inherent melanoma susceptibility to nevi development and the second to environmental cumulative ultraviolet light exposure. In this study, we examined the relation between nevus density, accrued sun damage and the site of primary melanoma excision. In a series of 888 consecutive cutaneous melanoma patients, melanomas appearing in skin areas with a high relative nevus density were most prominent in men, with an elevated nevus count, at sites without solar elastosis, but with an epidemiological history of previous sunburn. The present study associates melanoma development to sites with high nevus density. Our study supports more careful surveillance of body areas with increased nevus density in patients with high total body number of nevi, especially when they report a history of sunburns at these sites.