Mole or Early Melanoma? Rethinking Early Detection, Overdiagnosis, and the Benign–Malignant Paradigm

Abstract

Melanoma early detection has been widely promoted on the assumption that diagnosing early tumors improves outcomes, but epidemiologic data increasingly challenge this assumption. In fair-skinned populations subjected to intensified surveillance, diagnoses of thin invasive and in situ melanomas have risen sharply without corresponding declines in advanced disease or melanoma-related mortality, a pattern consistent with cancer overdiagnosis. Heightened scrutiny preferentially detects biologically indolent melanocytic proliferations that often share clinical and histologic features with genuinely aggressive tumors, revealing the limitations of the traditional benign-malignant binary when applied to subtle melanocytic lesions. Drawing on historical anatomic pathology, particularly Virchow's concept of tumors as quantitative deviations along a continuum rather than discrete entities, we argue that many early "melanomas" are better understood as risk states than as fully realized malignant disease. The MPATH-Dx framework operationalizes this perspective by mapping melanocytic lesions into probabilistic risk classes linked to recommended management, rather than forcing a categorical melanoma versus nevus distinction. Its updated Version 2.0 simplifies classification and grading of atypia, introduces reproducible cytomorphologic thresholds, and defines a low-risk subset of thin invasive melanomas that may ultimately be reclassified as melanocytic neoplasms with high-grade atypia (low malignant potential). Transitioning from a binary to a risk-based diagnostic paradigm could reduce overdiagnosis and overtreatment, improve communication of uncertainty, and better align clinical, administrative, and legal practices with underlying tumor biology. Such a shift, however, will require reeducation of clinicians, patients, payers, and policymakers, as well as adaptation of coding, registry, and malpractice frameworks to a more nuanced understanding of melanoma risk.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. International Journal of Dermatology, 2026 · DOI ↗