Patient characteristics, methods of diagnosis and treatment of melanoma in the United States

The National Cancer Data Base report on cutaneous and noncutaneous melanoma

“…13 Prior to that, the American College of Surgeons performed a Patient Care Evaluation study of cutaneous and noncutaneous melanoma comprising 11,904 patients that was reported in 1992. 14 In the current study, cutaneous melanomas comprised 91.2% of the cases, followed by ocular (5.3%), unknown primary (2.2%), and mucosal (1.3%) melanomas. The peak age at diagnosis for cutaneous, ocular, and unknown primary site of melanomas was between ages 60 -69 years.…”

Malignant gastrointestinal melanomas of unknown origin: Should it be considered primary?

“…Thus, identifying GI melanomas results in problems relating to histogenesis and determination of their primary or secondary nature. Primary mucosal melanomas are rare, mainly arising in head and neck, female genital tract, esophagus, anorectum and urinary tract [2,[10][11][12] . GI melanomas' primary or secondary nature is often difficult to establish, giving rise to much controversies [10][11][12] .…”

“…Primary mucosal melanomas are rare, mainly arising in head and neck, female genital tract, esophagus, anorectum and urinary tract [2,[10][11][12] . GI melanomas' primary or secondary nature is often difficult to establish, giving rise to much controversies [10][11][12] . Esophagus and anorectum are considered to be the most frequent sites, while their existence in the remaining part of the GI tract is still debated [3,9] .…”

DMBT1 expression distinguishes anorectal from cutaneous melanoma

“…Anorectal melanoma (AM) is a rare mucosal melanocytic malignancy and is associated with an extremely poor prognosis 1 . Mucosal melanoma accounts for about 1.5% of all melanoma compared with cutaneous melanoma (CM) (93.6%) and ocular melanoma (4.9%) 2,3 . Among mucosal melanomas, AM accounts for approximately 22%, after melanoma of the head, neck and genital tract 2 .…”