The increasing use of shave biopsy for diagnosing invasive melanoma in Australia

Menezes, Sara L; Kelly, John W; Mar, Victoria

doi:10.5694/mja2.50502

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In reply: We thank Byth and Byth for sharing their perspectives on our article.1 The authors queried whether better equipment and training over the 10‐year period may have had an impact on base transection rates. In fact, our data suggest poorer performance over time, with base transection rates for shave biopsies of 45% (17/37), 55% (32/58) and 56% (45/80) in 2005, 2010 and 2015 respectively (unpublished data).

1 Victorian Melanoma Service, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC
2 Monash University Central Clinical School, Melbourne, VIC

Correspondence:

Competing interests:

Victoria Mar and John Kelly are involved in developing the Cancer Council melanoma clinical practice guidelines.

1. de Menezes SL, Kelly JW, Wolfe R, et al. The increasing use of shave biopsy for diagnosing invasive melanoma in Australia. Med J Aust 2019; 211: 213–218. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2019/211/5/increasing-use-shave-biopsy-diagnosing-invasive-melanoma-australia
2. Elmore JG, Barnhill RL, Elder DE, et al. Pathologists’ diagnosis of invasive melanoma and melanocytic proliferations: observer accuracy and reproducibility study. BMJ 2017; 357: j2813.
3. Ng JC, Swain S, Dowling JP, et al. The impact of partial biopsy on histopathologic diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma: experience of an Australian tertiary referral service. Arch Dermatol 2010; 146: 234–239.
4. Kelly JW, Beer T, Damian D, et al; Cancer Council Australian Melanoma Guidelines Working Party. What type of biopsy should be performed for a pigmented lesion suspicious for melanoma? https://wiki.cancer.org.au/australia/Clinical_question:What_type_of_biopsy_should_be_performed_for_a_suspicious_pigmented_skin_lesion%3F (viewed Jan 2020).

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