Open AccessJudging Prognosis in Malignant Melanoma of the Skin
Author(s) -
Marsden S. Blois,
Richard W. Sagebiel,
Mark S. Tuttle,
Taylor M. Caldwell,
Hugh Taylor
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
annals of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.153
H-Index - 309
eISSN - 1528-1140
pISSN - 0003-4932
DOI - 10.1097/00000658-198308000-00015
Subject(s) - medicine , melanoma , dissection (medical) , lymph node , stage (stratigraphy) , surgery , paleontology , cancer research , biology
Data was generated for 828 clinical stage 1 melanoma patients, divided into groups according to sex, tumor location, and tumor level for each of the 56 groups. Summary data, including the number of patients, number of patients dying as a result of melanoma, range of tumor thickness, mean and median tumor thickness, and mean length of follow-up of the surviving patients, are shown. Patients with melanoma of the palms and soles, subungual melanomas, and mucosal melanomas were excluded. A physician with a new melanoma patient could select the appropriate group for his or her patient, matched with respect to sex, location, and level, and then make a judgment regarding the prognosis, based on the survival experience of the group. In a few groups, the small numbers of patients provides only a rough impression of survival, but with many groups, a fair estimate can be made. The effectiveness of elective lymph node dissection was examined by creating 111 pairs of patients, matched by sex, level, location, and tumor thickness (to within +/- 12%), in which one member of the pair had an elective node dissection (ELND) and the other did not. There was no statistically significant difference between the survival of the two groups.