Clark's level

Clark's level is a staging system, which describes the level of anatomical invasion of the melanoma in the skin. It was developed by Wallace H. Clark Jr. at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in the 1960s.

Clark's level

Levels

Five anatomical levels are recognized, and higher levels have worsening prognostic implications. These levels are:[1]

  • Level 1: Melanoma confined to the epidermis (melanoma in situ)
  • Level 2: Invasion into the papillary dermis
  • Level 3: Invasion to the junction of the papillary and reticular dermis
  • Level 4: Invasion into the reticular dermis
  • Level 5: Invasion into subcutaneous tissue.

National usage

In the United States, the current staging system adopted by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) no longer considers Clark's level, because it is less prognostic and more subjective than other alternatives.[2]

However, it is a mandatory component for melanoma pathology in Sweden.[3]

gollark: Why do many of the graphs have two different things for "size" and such now?
gollark: Also, you need to manually collect the drops, though they could be autofiltered easily via introspection modules.
gollark: It could probably work fine, and be a lot faster than digging with pickaxes, if wildly destructive.
gollark: I investigated wide-scale laser mining.
gollark: I can have a few useful graphs instead of several hundred measuring things I don't understand.

See also

References
  1. "NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms". National Cancer Institute. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  2. "Breslow Depth and Clark Level". Melanoma Research Alliance. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  3. "Bilaga 6. Kvalitetsbilaga för patologi (KVAST-bilaga)". Regionala Cancercentrum i Samverkan, guidelines by Swedish Society of Pathology. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
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