Alberto Pappo, MD: Why Pediatric Melanoma Diagnosis Is In Flux
Source: HCP Live, March 2023
The concept of pediatric melanoma has evolved in the last 3 decades, one expert told HCPLive. In the early 1990s, every lesion that was possibly melanoma in a child was treated as such, Alberto Pappo, MD, explained.
“We did extensive surgeries to access the status of the lymph nodes, then we gave adjuvant therapies…but over time we have learned there’s this spectrum that goes over the so-called pediatric melanoma,” he said.
In an interview with HCPLive during the Society for Pediatric Dermatology (SPD) 2022 Pre-AAD Meeting in New Orleans this year, Pappo, director of the Solid Tumor Division at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, discussed the development of pediatric melanoma diagnosis and treatment over 30 years—to its current state as a still-contested topic.