Morphologic analysis of periumbilical nevi

Abstract A large number of publications recognize that there are melanocytic lesions with microscopic features similar to melanoma, related to their location, with no prognostic importance. Those locations are represented by the ear, the milk lines (axillary, breast, periumbilical and inguinal regions), palms, soles and flexural regions. The periumbilical nevi are included by some authors in the category of the flexural nevi. In 2004, Rongioletti et al., performed a study on a number of 101 breast nevi, considering 10 histologic parameters. Starting from Rongioletti’s study we measured 10 histologic parameters on 121 nevi (26 from the periunmbilical area) and notes with 0 if absent or impossible to evaluate and with 1 if present. The score for each lesion ranged from 0 to 6 and we compared the features of the periumbilical nevi with the nevi from the control sites and found that the ones in the periumbilical area have more frequently atypical features than the nevi from the other sites (lemtiginous proliferation of nevus cells, architectural disorder of the nevus cell nests and stromal reactions as dermal fibroplasias and dermal lymphocytic infiltrate). We also performed immunohistochemical examination on lesions that presented three or more of the examined histologic parameters, but the results were not very suggestive. The conclusion of this study is that the atypical features of the breast nevi are only site related atypias and have no hormonal influences