Surgical Techniques for Treatment of Primary Cutaneous Melanoma

The incidence and mortality rates of melanoma increased dramatically from 1973 to 1994, rising 120.5 and 38.9%, respectively (1 ). From 1990 to 1994, men had higher incidence (17.3/100,000) and mortality rates (3.5/100,000) than women (incidence: 11.6/100,000; mortality: 1.7/100,000) and had more melanomas on the trunk or the head and neck; women had more on the lower limbs, but the largest increases for an anatomic site were for the trunk. Incidence rates for birth cohorts born after 1945 seem to be stabilizing. Mortality rates of melanoma are declining for women born in the 1930s or later and men born since the 1950s.