A Study on How to Safely Guide Surgery for Melanoma and Similar Skin Tumors in Children Using Pathology and Genetic Information

This phase II trial compares the effect of using risk-based stratification to guide surgical management to the usual approach in treating cutaneous melanoma, atypical Spitz/Spitzoid tumors or other atypical melanocytic tumors that have not spread to other parts of the body (localized). Melanoma is a cancer that in children is sometimes difficult to tell apart from benign (not harmful) or atypical (uncertain if harmful) skin lesions. Failure to diagnose melanoma can result in inadequate surgical removal and increase the risk of recurrence and metastatic disease (spread from where it first started to other places in the body). In addition, diagnosing a tumor a benign (not cancer) tumor as cancer may lead to unnecessary surgery and treatment. This trial reviews tumor pathology and genetic markers and classifies the tumor as not atypical, atypical but low risk for spread and/or recurrence (coming back after a period of improvement), and atypical and high risk for spread and/or recurrence. The classifications are then used to provide surgical recommendations. Tumors that are not atypical do not receive any surgical treatment. Low-risk recommendations include removing a small layer of normal skin around the tumor. High-risk recommendations include the usual adult melanoma approach of removing a larger layer of normal skin around the tumor with or without a biopsy of the sentinel lymph node (the first lymph node to which tumor cells are likely to spread from a primary tumor). Risk-based guided surgical management may help avoid unnecessary surgery while improving outcomes in younger patients with localized cutaneous melanoma, atypical Spitz/Spitzoid tumors or other atypical melanocytic tumors.