Hi All! I have not been dx with melanoma, but I do have a bunch of dysplastic nevi. I thought it would be a good idea to have copies of my pathology reports from my biopsies, and until I can see my derm again, was wondering if someone could help me understand one of them/answer a couple questions?
"The epidermis is irregular with elongated rete ridges, hyperpigmentation, and diffuse melanocytic hyperplasia confined to the basal epidermis. Melanocytes are also present in the dermis. Junctional melanocytes vary in size, shape, and distribution but are condined to the basal epidermis. Rete ridges are elongated and surrounded by concentric fibroplasia. Lymphocytes, histiocytes, and melanophages are present in the dermis."
I have 2 or 3 dysplastic nevi that had this same description in the reports, all came back mildly atypical. My questions mostly concern the last sentence…
1 – The way I understand that sentence, is that my immune system is doing it's job and "attacking" cells it sees are atypical. If that is the case, then shouldn't all my atypical moles have that sentence in their descriptions (because they do not)? Could that be because these particular moles were "active" or "changing" at the time of biopsy and the others without that sentence were "stable," or something along the lines of that?
2 – Should one worry if that sentence is in there? My derm doesn't feel the need to completely excise mildly atypical moles (he does moderate and severe), even if there is pigment regrowth, UNLESS the regrowth is outside the scar or just looks really funky…would it be better to ask him to excise the rest since that sentence is in there (he will if i ask him to)?
Thank you for your help!! 🙂
