title: Surgical treatment of melanoma: a survey of Italian hospitals.
abstract: Surgery is the first option for treating melanoma regardless of stage at presentation. We surveyed a representative sample of hospitals to evaluate management and quality of surgical indications for melanoma in Italy. At analysis, hospitals were grouped into high- or low-volume centers, with the population median of 25 diagnoses serving as the cut-off. Surgery for primary melanoma was similar between hospital groups. More high-volume centers were organized to perform sentinel node biopsy (91 vs. 56%). There were no major differences between high- and low-volume centers concerning the surgical approach to stage III and IV disease.
authors.affiliation: Divisione Melanoma e Sarcomi Muscolo-Cutanei, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milan, Italy. alessandro.testori @ ieo.it
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Testori
authors.forename: Vanna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chiarion-Sileni
authors.forename: Ignazio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stanganelli
authors.forename: Carlo Riccardo
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Filippo
authors.forename: Ruggero
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ridolfi
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Parmiani
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gandini
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Soteldo
mesh_terms: D006306:Health Surveys; D061847:Hospitals, High-Volume / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D061846:Hospitals, Low-Volume / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires