WAIKOLOA, HAWAII -- An incisional biopsy that fails to remove all of a pigmented skin lesion suspected of melanoma certainly isn't optimal, but it doesn't adversely affect overall or disease-free survival, Dr. Daniel G. Colt said at the annual Hawaii dermatology seminar sponsored by Skin Disease Education Foundation.
Although complete excisional biopsy is the standard, "I would rather have an incomplete shave biopsy than no biopsy at all. Not getting all the tumor out is actually not all that terribly important in terms of outcome," said Dr. Colt, a surgeon who is coleader of the melanoma disease management team at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a ...