title: Cutaneous malignant melanoma (Arizona Cancer Center experience). I. Natural history and prognostic factors influencing survival in patients with stage I disease.
abstract: The authors have studied the natural history of 377 patients with Stage I cutaneous malignant melanoma followed at the Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson. Two hundred eight patients, or 55%, remained free of metastatic disease after a median follow-up of 30 months. The survival at 5, 8, and 10 years was 69, 65, and 63%, respectively. Natural breakpoints in Breslow thickness for survival occurred at 0.85, 1.95, and 4.00 mm. These are not significantly different from those found by other investigators. A step-down multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model yielded four factors as highly significant in predicting survival: Breslow thickness (P less than 0.001), an age/sex interaction (P = 0.0012), clinical ulceration (P = 0.0039), and a prophylactic node dissection (P = 0.019). No predictive value for a BANS or non-BANS location was detected. These results are discussed in reference to other large series which describe the natural history of cutaneous melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson.
authors.forename: F L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Meyskens
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Berdeaux
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Parks
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Loescher
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Moon
mesh_terms: D001130:Arizona; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012307:Risk Factors; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*