Principal Investigator:
Elena Hawryluk, MD, PhD – Massachusetts General Hospital
Overview:
Pediatric dermatologists have a strong interest in better understanding pediatric nevi and characterizing melanoma; the diagnostic challenge of pediatric melanomas can delay diagnosis, lead to deeper and more advanced pediatric melanomas, and potentially result in worse outcomes. A coordinated effort among pediatric dermatologists to better understand and collectively describe the clinical features with which patients present to our specialty will allow us to educate and work constructively with colleagues in pediatrics, oncology, pediatric surgery, and adult dermatology, who manage melanoma more frequently. This retrospective study will allow us to describe clinical and histopathologic data associated with a fatal outcome, and ultimately promises to inform clinicians’ management and counseling strategies for melanoma patients and their families.
Status:
This study was funded as a 2017 PeDRA Pilot Grant. One publication in print – Bartenstein, et al., 2018; (see publications page). Additional sites have been added to gather more data and analysis is underway for additional publications.
This project received a 2019 PeDRA Study Support Grant to fund a biostatistician at Boston Chidren’s Hostpial to perform analysis on the additional data gathered, and provide support as abstracts and manuscripts are prepared.