Challenges and considerations in melanoma diagnosis: Insights from 2 cases with negative pigmented lesion assay results

Melanoma, with its aggressive nature and metastatic potential, demands early detection and intervention for optimal outcomes. While histopathologic examination remains the gold standard, adjunctive techniques such as dermoscopy and confocal microscopy improve diagnostic accuracy.1 The pigmented lesion assay (PLA), a gene expression test targeting long intergenic nonprotein coding RNA 518 (LINC00518) and preferentially expressed antigen in melanoma (PRAME), aims to rule out melanoma and ideally reduce the number of surgical biopsies, especially in cosmetically sensitive areas.