ReportBreslow depth of cutaneous melanoma: Impact of factors related to surveillance of the skin, including prior skin biopsies and family history of melanoma
Section snippets
Material and methods
Patients were eligible for this retrospective cohort study if they had at least one invasive cutaneous melanoma. The diagnosis of an in situ melanoma was not sufficient for entry into the study, but some of the patients with multiple primary melanomas had in situ lesions. Of note, in the patients with multiple primaries, the invasive melanoma was not always their initial cutaneous melanoma. Melanoma stage in the patients with multiple primary lesions was based on the most advanced lesion. A
Family history of melanoma
All 218 melanoma patients who attended the Yale PLC from Jan 31, 1995 to Jan 31, 1996 and qualified for the study were Caucasian. Of the 214 patients included in the statistical analysis, 51 (23.6%) had a family history of melanoma (“familial patients”). This group included 6 patients with two affected relatives, one patient with 3 affected relatives, and one patient with 8 affected relatives. Of the familial patients, 31 (60.8%) had at least one first-degree relative with the diagnosis of
Personal history of melanoma and patterns of detection
As shown in previous studies,9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 we found that subsequent primary melanomas were thinner than initial melanomas. Likewise, our study as well as other series have demonstrated that although the majority of initial melanomas were first noticed by patients,27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 80% to 95% of second primary melanomas were discovered by dermatologists.21, 24, 44 These findings presumably reflect
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