Acral melanoma. A clinicopathologic study of 28 patients.

Clinical and histopathologic analyses of 28 cases of acral melanoma in the last 24 years were carried out in this study. Of our 81 patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma, 28 (35%) had acral melanoma. The mean patient age was 59 years old. The two most commonly involved sites were the soles and toes. The preferential sites for metastasis were the lymph nodes, followed by the lungs, bone, and liver in descending order. Histologically, all skin biopsy specimens showed biphasic growth patterns and consisted of either spindle cells or epithelioid cells or both. The treatment was in all cases mainly surgical and, in patients at advanced stage, chemotherapy was added. The mean survival time for the series was 34.03 months, while the 3-year survival rate was only 29%.