Skin Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Skin Cancer, including details on identification, causes, prevention, treatment.

Melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma on different nails of the same hand.

Harwood M, Telang GH, Robinson-Bostom L, Jellinek N

Department of Dermatology, Brown Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

Nail dyschromia, including melanonychia and erythronychia, encompasses a wide range of possible diagnoses. While the majority of these lesions are benign, malignancies of the nail unit represent a sinister, and potentially life-threatening, cause of nail dyschromia. Unfamiliarity with tumors of the nail apparatus can lead to a delay in diagnosis. A case is presented of a patient with two separate and concurrent malignant neoplasms of the nail unit, on different nails on the same hand, each featuring an unusual clinical presentation: amelanotic melanoma presenting as longitudinal erythronychia and squamous cell carcinoma in situ presenting as longitudinal melanonychia. This presentation underscores the need for a low threshold for biopsy in the presence of nail dyschromia of uncertain etiology.

Published 28 January 2008 in J Am Acad Dermatol, 58(2): 323-6.
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