title: Invasive cutaneous melanoma in elderly patients.
abstract: Clinical and pathologic variables were compared between "older" (greater than or equal to 70 years) and "younger" (30 to 39 years) patients with primary invasive cutaneous melanoma. Older patients had more nodular melanomas and acral lentiginous melanomas (58%); superficial spreading melanomas predominated in younger patients (74%). Mean tumor thickness was greater in the older patients (3.95 vs 2.02 mm). Invasive levels 2 and 3 occurred more often in younger patients (41.1% vs 13%); level 5 occurred more often in older patients (30.4% vs 5.3%). Microscopic ulceration occurred more often in older (46.4%) than in younger patients (19.4%). Older patients classified as clinical stage I at presentation or with primary lesions 1.50- to 3.00-mm thick had poorer survival. Younger women survived longer than younger men; this was not true of older patients. The elderly patients with cutaneous melanoma were more likely to have poor prognostic features and thus more likely to die from melanoma than the younger patients.
authors.affiliation: Specialized Center for Cancer Research and Education, University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Loggie
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Ronan
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bean
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Das Gupta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D012737:Sex Factors; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D015996:Survival Rate