Marco Spadafora

• University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

Background/Objectives: Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is a prevalent skin cancer with increasing incidence worldwide. High-risk cSCCs often require extensive surgical treatments, which can impair anatomical function and aesthetics. Neoadjuvant immunotherapy, particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) such as cemiplimab and pembroliz...

Background In a recent prospective, multicenter, two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT), we demonstrated that adjunctive reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) in routine clinical practice provides clinical benefits, including safe melanoma detection and a 43.3% reduction in the number needed to excise (NNE). Methods A cost–benefit analysis was...

Background/Objectives: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive cutaneous neuroendocrine malignancy characterized by its propensity for rapid growth and early regional and distant metastasis. Given its potentially lethal nature, accurate and timely diagnosis of MCC is of utmost importance. This review aims to describe non-invasive imagi...

Simple Summary The scarcity of specific clinical and dermoscopic criteria makes solitary pink skin lesions the most challenging to diagnose. Cherry angioma, clear cell acanthoma, dermal nevus, keloid, hypertrophic scar, and Spitz nevus are the most common benign lesions that share similar clinical and dermoscopic features. Furthermore, some maligna...

Background Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field of both computational linguistics and artificial intelligence (AI) dedicated to analysis and interpretation of human language. Objectives This systematic review aims at exploring all the possible applications of NLP techniques in the dermatological setting. Methods Extensive search on ‘natur...

Simple Summary This study investigates the characteristics of metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) to improve patient risk stratification. By comparing patients with metastatic and non-metastatic cSCC, we analyzed cSCC skin samples for histological parameters and gene expression profiles. Out of 770 genes tested, 67 were differential...

Background Differential diagnosis of amelanotic/hypomelanotic melanoma among solitary flat pink lesions is challenging, due to limited clinical and dermoscopic clues. Dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy assessments improve diagnostic accuracy, but their combined capacity among solitary flat pink lesions is yet to be defined. Objectives...

Laser treatments have become popular in Dermatology. In parallel to technologic development enabling the availability of different laser wavelengths, non-invasive skin imaging techniques, such as reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM), have been used to explore morphologic and qualitative skin characteristics. Specifically, RCM can be applied to cos...

Introduction: Mucosal melanoma is a rare neoplasm. Late diagnosis is caused by occult anatomic sites and scarcity of symptoms. Novel biological therapies have now become available. Demographic, therapeutical and survival records on mucosal melanoma are scarce. Objectives: To provide an 11-year retrospective clinical review of real-world data on...

Background Despite being a common concern, there are very few minimally invasive treatments targeting neck skin laxity (NSL) reported in the literature. Objective To assess the efficacy of hyperdiluted calcium hydroxyapatite (hy-CaHA) for the treatment of NSL, according to the NSL scale, and to estimate safety. Materials and methods Twenty patien...

Background: Neck aging is usually evaluated together with the lower face. To date, a skin laxity scale for the neck as an independent anatomical district is lacking. Objective: To create and validate a proposed photonumeric neck skin laxity (NSL) scale. Materials and methods: Frontal neck photographic images of 110 subjects were collected. Eac...

Background Melanocytic lesions with eccentric hyperpigmentation (EH), even though without other dermatoscopic features of melanoma, are often excised. Objective Aiming to understand if the EH in a pigmented lesion is an accurate criterion of malignancy, we evaluated the capability of two evaluators, with different expertise, to correctly diagnose...