Multicolor FISH with improved sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of malignant melanoma

Evaluation of: Gerami P, Li G, Pouryazdanparast P et al. A highly specific and discriminatory FISH assay for distinguishing between benign and malignant melanocytic neoplasms. Am. J. Surg. Pathol. 36(6), 808-817 (2012). The diagnosis of malignant melanoma remains a challenging aspect in the field of pathology. In the last years, FISH has become an important tool for the diagnosis of melanocytic tumors in addition to conventional microscopy. Benign and malignant melanomas can be discriminated using a four-probe FISH assay targeting 6p25, 6q23, Cep6 and 11q13. Gerami et al. proposed to refine this current probe set with the incorporation of chromosome 8q24 and 9p21 probes into the FISH assay, and hereby increase sensitivity and specificity for distinguishing between benign and malignant melanoma and improve the detection of spitzoid melanomas. In this article, the authors evaluate this newly-defined multicolor FISH probe set for the diagnosis of malignant melanoma. Optimizing diagnostic tests in malignant melanoma are important for current and future management of patients with melanocytic proliferations.