The term “amelanotic melanoma” is used clinically to indicate any type of melanoma skin cancer that lacks pigmentation. These skin tumors represent a large proportion of melanomas that can not be diagnosed easily because they don’t have defined characteristics.

In fact, the amelanotic melanoma can not be identified by the traditional pattern analysis. It therefore requires a screening strategy including special techniques and dermoscopic criteria for the characterization of several non-pigmented skin lesions.
The amelanotic melanoma can be confused with diabetic foot ulcer or with common warts, eczema and rhinophyma.

The predictive aspects of this type of melanoma skin cancer include the presence of a bluish-white veil, wound type depigmentation, several gray-blue points, depigmentation with irregular edges, and brown dots or globules irregularly distributed.
The face and feet are the anatomical sites where the diagnosis of this type of melanoma is the most underestimated.

Below follow some amelanotic melanoma pictures: