Hi, my WLE biopsy indicated a much SMALLER breslow width than the shaved biopsy. I had another pathologist confirm the WLE and she came up with the same results, a smaller breslow width.
Ive heard shaved biopsy can underestimate but is it possible they can overestimate?
Width or depth? Width on the skin means nothing. Depth INTO the skin means everything. The biopsy is almost always going to get the best sample and the most information. It is analyzed the closest. The WLE is to get WIDE clear margins. It may remove additional melanoma and will note it, but rarely does the WLE change the staging given from the initial biopsy report. Exceptions can happen based on circumstances.
Thank You for the reply. They were both depth. Two patholoigist excamined the WLE sample and they both overruled the shaved biospy. Thay measured it from the epidermis to the bottom of tumor and got 2.4mm They concluded the first shaved biopsy was measured incorrectly. My melanoma specialist confirmed it. Perhaps this is a exception you are are speaking of
The biopsy type should not interfere in the reading of the depth. It sounds like the shave was only a partial biopsy where only a small sampling of the lesion was removed. Typically, there is nothing left in the WLE tissue to read the depth. Any biopsy should try to remove the entire lesion unless it would be disfiguring – that's typically when partial biopsies are done. Saying that the biopsy report was read wrong – did you have that report read again by another pathologist? That would make more sense to me. Because it is possible for the biopsy depth to be deeper than what is left for the WLE. In general, no depth is overestimated. Shave biopsies often cut through a lesion leaving depth remaining and that's why a depth may not be a true final depth. But that's not what you are describing.
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