Peer Reviewed
Feature Article Dermatology
Benign skin tumours: a guide to assessment and treatment
Recent articles on:
Benign tumours
Benign tumours
Abstract
This article is a guide to the commonly seen benign skin lesions whose differential diagnosis includes malignancy. These lesions can cause significant anxiety to both patients and clinicians.
Key Points
- Benign skin lesions mimicking malignant tumours can cause significant anxiety to both patients and clinicians.
- Many benign skin tumours do not need to be biopsied or treated.
- Major predictive factors for melanoma include lesion asymmetry and colour variation within a lesion. The finding of a ‘blue-grey veil’ under examination with a dermoscope or episcope is strongly suggestive of melanoma.
- The recommended standard of care for a suspicious pigmented lesion is an excisional biopsy; partial biopsy samples are often unrepresentative of the lesion as a whole.
- Superficial benign lesions can be treated with superficially destructive treatments; deeper lesions need surgical excision.
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