Current data do not support widespread population-based screening for melanoma. While the incidence of melanoma is high, the overall mortality is low, and thus any potential benefit of screening the general population is hard to demonstrate. No randomized controlled trial showing reduction in mortality has ever been completed and, given the expense and time necessary for such a trial, probably will never be completed. The idea of skin screening remains appealing for this common, visible malignancy which is eminently treatable when detected early. Efforts should be focused on populations at particularly high risk of developing melanoma and on those at high risk of death from melanoma once diagnosed. Persons in kindreds of familial melanoma, and persons who have atypical mole syndrome, those who have a prior diagnosis of melanoma, or those who have diagnosed atypical nevi are all reasonable candidates for routine screening, based on lower-level evidence in the absence of randomized clinical trials targeting these groups. Programs targeting persons of low socioeconomic status and targeting white men over the age of 50 could address groups known to beat especially high risk of melanoma mortality.

Australia↗

PubMed2005

Melanoma in children: heightened awareness of an uncommon but often curable malignancy.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

New TNM melanoma staging system: linking biology and natural history to clinical outcomes.

The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) implemented major revisions of the melanoma TNM and stage grouping criteria in the recently published 6th edition of the Staging Manual. The new staging system better reflects independent prognostic factors that are used in clinical trials and in reporting the outcomes of various melanoma treatment modalities. Major revisions include: 1) melanoma thickness and ulceration but not level of invasion to be used in the T classification, 2) the number of metastatic lymph nodes rather than their gross dimensions and the delineation of microscopic vs. macroscopic nodal metastases to be used in the N classification, 3) the site of distant metastases and the presence of elevated serum lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) to be used in the M classification, 4) an upstaging of all patients with Stage I, II, and III disease when a primary melanoma is ulcerated, 5) a merging of satellite metastases around a primary melanoma and in transit metastases into a single staging entity that is grouped into Stage III disease, and 6) a new convention for defining clinical and pathological staging so as to take into account the new staging information gained from intraoperative lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗

PubMed2003

The new melanoma staging system.

The new melanoma staging system from The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) is described. This major revision includes new criteria for staging the primary tumor (T), metastatic nodes (N) and distant metastases (M) as well as stage groupings. These criteria more accurately reflect those prognostic features of the primary and metastatic melanoma that correlate with survival outcome. Physicians managing melanoma should use this staging system in their clinical practice and in the conduct of melanoma clinical trials.

Humans↗

PubMed2002