Management of Malignant Melanoma

 

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ONCOLOGIC BACKGROUND

Incidence

Malignant melanoma is the leading cause of death in skin cancers. The incidence of melanoma is reported to vary throughout the world. It demonstrates a clear demographic disparity, and is a common malignancy in Western countries. It is reported at the highest rates in Auckland, New Zealand, with the age-standardized rate of 40.2/100,000 [[1]]. Other high rates have been reported in Australia, with a rate of 37.7/100,000 among males and 29.4/100,000 among females [[2]]. In the United States, 68,720 patients diagnosed with and 8,650 deaths from malignant melanoma were reported in 2009 [[3]]. In Asia, malignant melanoma is a rare disease and it is difficult to locate reports on the incidence. The age-adjusted rate for melanoma in 2006 was known to be 0.65/100,000 and 0.71/100,000 for males and 0.59/100,000 for females in Taiwan. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no multi-center study of malignant melanoma in Korea.

Etiology

UV exposure has been implicated as a major cause in the etiology of malignant melanoma [[4]]. However, acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) and mucosal melanoma, which are more common in Asia, are generally not a result of exposure to ultraviolet irradiation. The etiology is yet to be determined. In an epidemiologic study of ALM from Australia, an increased risk was associated with penetrating injury of the feet or hands (relative risk [RR], 5.0) and with heavy exposure to agrichemicals (RR, 3.6) [[5]]. Further etiologic studies to identify the risk factors are warranted.

The author thanks Bo Young Park, MD and So-Young Lim, MD, PhD for their contribution in preparing this article.

Publication History

Received: 25 June 2012

Accepted: 12 August 2012

Article published online:
01 May 2022

© 2012. The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, permitting unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

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