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Itzhak Jacoby, PhD
Office of Medical Applications of Research National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Md

JAMA. 1985;253(17):2493-2494.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

As acting director of the Office of Medical Applications of Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH), which was responsible for coordinating the October 1983 Consensus Development Conference on Precursors to Malignant Melanoma,¹ I am compelled to respond to the Lynch and Fusaro² article relating to the outcome of that conference.

We at the NIH find it unfortunate that these two authors have chosen to make a "rebuttal" in this particular fashion, since it is misleading as to the intent of the conference and shows a lack of comprehension in at least two important areas.

1. The area of the authors' concern—familial atypical multiple mole melanoma (FAMMM)—is not synonymous with the conference topic. The consensus panel did not address the question of FAMMM specifically; rather, it dealt solely with the role of dysplastic nevi as precursors to melanoma. Whether FAMMM can occur without dysplastic nevi is,
   

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