title: Cutaneous melanoma in the elderly.
abstract: The aim of this review was to analyze the difficulties in diagnosing and treating elderly patients with cutaneous melanoma. It focused on the main causes for late diagnosis and relatively poor prognosis in these patients. Early detection of melanoma is vital to reduce mortality in these patients and surgery is often curative. Adequate treatment of elderly patients with melanoma requires knowledge of the clinical features and histopathology of the disease, and the therapeutic options. This review also examined the main surgical procedures for primary melanoma and regional lymph node staging, and the curative and palliative procedures indicated for those elderly patients with advanced disease. It is expected that several molecular genetic factors will soon provide further prognostic information of possible benefit for elderly patients with melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Division of Melanoma and Soft Tissue Sarcoma, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. alessandro.testori@ieo.it
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Testori
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Soteldo
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sances
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mazzarol
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Trifirò
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zonta
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rastrelli
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schenone
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Verrecchia
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*