Abstract

The incidence of melanoma has been growing rapidly in recent years. Patients with melanoma are mostly reported to be more than 60- years-old, though incidence has been significantly increasing in young patients, as well. A rare type of malignant melanoma accounts for 2-3% of all melanomas, being acral lentiginous melanoma, most commonly found on the lower limb skin and usually occurring in the palms and nail-beds. A seventeen-year-old boy was admitted to the authors’ clinic with a dark lesion on the nail-bed of the left hand index finger, apparently having the lesion for 2 years. The lesion had been sighted by the patient a long time before their visit and they had not been consulted with at a hospital. The first biopsy material determined malignant melanoma with the Breslow and Clark classifications being both grade 2. The complete lesion’s pathological findings reported as acral malignant melanoma. The aim of this study was to indicate the importance of early diagnosis and prognosis of treatment of acral malignant melanoma in younger patients with a case of acral melanoma in of young patient.

Key words: Acral melanoma, young, early diagnosis and treatment, biopsy