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Background: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer, and it can be easily treated by surgery or by various other physical modalities and topical chemotherapy. For metastatic, locally advanced BCC and for cancers that cannot be removed by surgery, systemic drugs known as hedgehog pathway blocker are used. High-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) is a non- invasive technique used in diagnosis of some skin cancers. It has proven potentially useful for BCC management. In this study we used high frequency ultrasounds to evaluate BCCs' thickness and the correlation with dermoscopic features., Methods: We examined 86 basal cell carcinomas with dermoscopy and with high-frequency ultrasound. The main patterns identified by ultrasound were linear, ellipsoid and non-specific or undefined. Patients were divided by sex and age. The BCCs were grouped by anatomic location. Finally, we recorded specific dermoscopic features of BCCs noting their presence/absence in lesions overall and in each of four quadrants. Then the lesions were excised, and histological examination was made with definition of tumor thickness (in mm)., Results: In our study, two main echographic patterns were described: linear, associated with superficial BCC, and ellipsoid, found primarily in nodular variants. However, a small percentage of lesions have otherwise non-specific patterns. We observed a significant correlation between echographic tumor thickness and histotype. We observed high concordance between histological tumor thickness and ultrasounds. Also, dermoscopic criteria as large branching and blue ovoid nests were significantly associated with heightened histologic and echographic assessments of tumor thickness., Conclusions: Our study confirmed the utility of ultrasound in the diagnosis of BCCs and for the first time we have correlated ultrasounds' patterns with dermoscopy and tumor thickness.

Background: Estrogens play a key role in the skin. They are associated with an increased production of melanin, proliferation of melanocytes, increased skin thickness and increased cutaneous vascularization. Spitz and Reed nevi are acquired melanocytic lesions that generally develop during childhood or adolescence, a period of changes in sex hormones background. Our study project aimed at investigating, through immunohistochemical analysis, the expression levels of ERß receptors and their expression patterns (cytoplasmic or nuclear) in Spitz and Reed nevi., Methods: In our study, we collected a total of 86 melanocytic lesions of patients: of these, 16 were common nevi, 23 were Spitz nevi, 18 were Reed nevi and 29 were melanomas. Expression curves for estrogen receptors were constructed using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using a log-rank test. Statistical analysis was performed using MedCalc® (MedCalc Software, Ostend, Belgium). Immunohistochemical analysis on all histological sections of nevi and melanomas was performed to evaluate the expression levels of of ERß and their expression patterns (cytoplasmic or nuclear). The agreement between the operators was calculated using Fleiss κ values., Results: The correlation between immunoreactivity for the β-estrogen receptor and the sex of patients with Spitz and Reed nevi showed that immunoreactivity was higher in male patients. The correlation between β-estrogen receptor immunoreactivity and patient age for Spitz and Reed nevi showed no statistically significant correlation. Correlation between immunoreactivity for the β-estrogen receptor and histotype: Spitz and Reed nevi showed a high intensity, while in common nevi and in melanomas the immunoreactive was low. The correlation between receptor immunoreactivity for β estrogens and Breslow thickness in melanomas indicated that Breslow thickness of non-immunoreactive melanomas for ERβ was much higher than those showing high immunoreactivity for this receptor., Conclusions: Spitz and Reed nevi express a higher immunoreactivity for estrogens than common nevi and melanomas, especially those with a high Breslow thickness; and immunoreactivity is higher in younger age groups.