Dermoscopy is nowadays considered an essential tool for melanoma detection because its use significantly increases the ability of clinicians to recognize melanoma earlier. This early detection is because dermoscopy reveals the natural asymmetry of melanoma before it becomes clinically evident.^1,2

Research from JAMA Dermatology — Skin Cancer Diagnosis With Reflectance Confocal Microscopy — Reproducibility of Feature Recognition and Accuracy of Diagnosis

Liquid biopsy can quantify and qualify cell-free (cfDNA) and tumour-derived (ctDNA) DNA fragments in the bloodstream. CfDNA quantification and mutation analysis can be applied to diagnosis, follow-up and therapeutic management as novel oncologic biomarkers. However, some tumor-types release a low amount of DNA into the bloodstream, hampering diagnosis through standard liquid biopsy procedures. Several tumors, as such as brain, kidney, prostate, and thyroid cancer, are in direct contact with other body fluids and may be alternative sources for cfDNA and ctDNA. Non-blood sources of cfDNA/ctDNA useful as novel oncologic biomarkers include cerebrospinal fluids, urine, sputum, saliva, pleural effusion, stool and seminal fluid. Seminal plasma cfDNA, which can be analyzed with cost-effective procedures, may provide powerful information capable to revolutionize prostate cancer (PCa) patient diagnosis and management. In the near future, cfDNA analysis from non-blood biological liquids will become routine clinical practice for cancer patient diagnosis and management.

Background: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin is a highly prevalent neoplasm. The management and the prognosis of this tumour are dependent on its invasiveness and its grade of differentiation.Objectives: To evaluate whether specific dermoscopic and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) criteria can predict the diagnosis of invasiveSCCvs.in situSCCand poorly differentiated compared with well‐ and moderately differentiatedSCC.Methods: Dermoscopic andRCMimages ofSCCwere retrospectively evaluated for the presence of predefined criteria.Results: Among 143SCCs, 121 cases had a complete set of images and thus were included in the study set. The head and neck area was the most frequently involved body site (74/121; 61.1%) followed by extremities (36/121, 29.7%) and trunk (11/121, 9.1%). Seventy tumours werein situ(57.8%), while 51 were invasive (42.1%), of these 11 were poorly differentiated (21.5%), 16 were moderately differentiated (31.3%), and 24 were well differentiated (47.0%). Chi‐squared analysis demonstrated that invasiveSCCs were characterized by polymorphic vessels, erosion/ulceration, architectural disarrangement, speckled nucleated cells in the dermis, irregularly dilated vessels and absence of hyperkeratosis. Buttonhole vessels, white structureless areas and dotted or glomerular vessels were significantly associated within situlesions. Poorly differentiatedSCCs were typified by red areas, erosion/ulceration and architectural disarrangement. Well‐ or moderately differentiatedSCCs were associated with white areas and speckled nucleated cells in the epidermis.Conclusion: Clinical, dermoscopic andRCMimages provide useful information that should be integrated in order to achieve the optimal therapeutic management for the patient.