Thin melanomas are recognized and captured by clinicians at an alarming rate, whereas thick melanomas remain underrecognized. Improved recognition of thick melanomas will require further understanding of their clinical and histologic characteristics at various stages of development because emerging data suggest that the thin melanomas being captured today may not represent the forerunners of the thick melanomas. In this retrospective analysis, pathology requisition forms from melanomas diagnosed by histopathology were examined for submitted clinical diagnosis, patient characteristics, melanoma thickness, and biopsy method. Three hundred eighty-five melanomas were identified from 2003 to 2011. Most lesions (71.7%) were clinically suspected to be melanocytic. The mean depth in this group was 0.62mm. Of the unsuspected cases (28.3%), the most common submitted diagnoses were basal cell carcinomas and seborrheic keratoses, consistent with previous reports. The mean depth in the unsuspected group was 1.64mm, and more frequently extended to the deep margin (51.8% vs 25.4% of the time). Shave biopsy was the overwhelming preferred method of biopsy (79.5% overall). Compared with thin melanomas, thick melanomas are underrecognized by physicians due to their lack of characteristic morphologic features; consequently, they are more frequently associated with suboptimal biopsies.
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