Collective Review of Malignant Melanoma

Abstract

Background: Malignant melanoma is a rare disease but owns the most lethal skin cancer. Thailand is still lacking of clearly incidence report and less in clinical study of malignant melanoma. Therefore, studying of characteristics, clinical presentation, subtypes of malignant melanoma and incidence rate for the last ten years can lead to greater understanding and make a better plan of future management.
Objective: To study characteristics, clinical presentation, subtypes and staging, completeness of pathological report, incidence rate, relation between stage and duration of symptoms in malignant melanoma patients at Surin hospital.
Setting: Surin Hospital
Study design: Collective review study
Methods: Review data of both out-patient and in-patient department patients who were diagnosed of malignant melanoma (ICD10 - C43) during 1st January 2005 to 31 December 2014.
Results: The study revealed the data of 38 patients, 21 males (55.3%) and 17 females (44.7%). The mean of age was 66.7 years. Newly seen abnormal skin lesion was the most common presentation (75%). The average of duration time between the first appearance of symptoms and the diagnosis of malignant melanoma was 13.2 months. For cutaneous melanoma, acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) was the most common subtype (12 cases, 50%). Foot/sole (26 cases, 68.4%), head and neck (5 cases, 13.2%) and lower limb (4 cases, 10.5%) were the three most common sites. Patients came with stage l-ll (9 cases, 36%), stage III (14 cases, 56%) and metastatic disease (1 case, 4%). Four cases (14.3%) were described with complete pathological report. There were more advanced disease patients (stage III- IV) with presentation time later than 3 months before diagnosis.
Conclusions: In the last ten years we found thirty eight malignant melanoma. ALM is the major type of cutaneous melanoma. Foot/sole is the most common site and mainly presentation with Stage III.