An Inquiry Into the Nature of the Pigmented Lesion Above Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Left Eyebrow

BACKGROUND Little note was taken when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was alive and since his death of the pigmented lesion above his left eyebrow that fulfilled clinical criteria for melanoma. OBSERVATIONS On morphologic grounds alone, it is im possible to exclude the possibility that Roosevelt had a melanoma. CONCLUSIONS The failure of observers of Roosevelt, especially his physicians, to comment on his riveting facial lesion and to identify it as a probable melanoma speaks volumes about how flawed were clinical criteria for diagnosis of flat and slightly raised lesions of melanoma in the 1930s and 1940s.Arch Dermatol. 2008;144(4):529-532-->