Domonkos, Arnold, and Odom

 
"At first atypical, but still dendritic, melanocytes are found at the dermoepidermal junction. These melanocytes are anaplastic or hyperplastic and contain vacuolated cytoplasm. Pinkus has emphasized the characteristic features of their nucleus: dark-staining and folded, not vesicular as in a junction nevus. As the melanocytes proliferate, the dermoepidermal border becomes irregular, while the melanocytic cells may form nests at the junction to give them a moth-eaten appearance. These atypical cells retain the cytologic features of melanocytes; they never become nevus cells. As the invasion extends into the dermis, an invasive melanocytic[sic] melanoma develops and metastasis is a possibility, though unlikely until a nodule is formed, as Hirsch and Helwig have long emphasized." Domonkos AN, Arnold Jr. HL, Odom RB. Andrews' diseases of the skin. 7th Edition. Philadelphia: WB Saunders Company, 1982:863.
 

Brief Critique

 
This description is replete with error, among them violations of fundamental precepts of pathology (e.g., hyperplasia rather than neoplasia), abstruse imagery (e.g., moth-eaten appearance), animistic interpretation (e.g., invasion), and misconception (e.g., nevus cells). Nothing stated by these authors permits a histopathologist to make a specific diagnosis of melanoma with surety.