title: Cutaneous melanoma in Turkey: analysis of 1157 patients in the Melanoma Turkish Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a large Turkish National Melanoma registry in order to define demographic and clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with melanoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data was collected from 1635 patients with melanoma through a web-based registry system in 22 centers. Herein we present the results of 1157 patients with cutaneous melanoma.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patient median age was 56.4 years and 646 (55.8%) were males. The commonest subtype was superficial spreading type (357, 30.9%). The commonest primary site was the lower extremities (N=353, 30.5%). The most common Breslow thickness was 1-2 mm (361 patients, 43.5%). Only 104 (12.5%) patients had a thickness <1mm. Among 694 patients with available data, 136 (19.6%) presented with stage 4 disease while the most frequent stage was stage 3, encountered in 393 (56.6% patients).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our melanoma registry is the largest in our country providing a snapshot view of cutaneous melanoma and its care. Our patients presented with more advanced stages and they had worse prognosis compared to SEER database.
authors.affiliation: Acibadem University School of Medicine, Department of Medical Oncology, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Huseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Abali
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Celik
authors.forename: Burcak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Karaca
authors.forename: Hande
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Turna
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kaytan Saglam
authors.forename: Tulay
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akman
authors.forename: Ilhan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Oztop
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Senol Coskun
authors.forename: Nazim
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Serdar Turhal
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sezer
authors.forename: Erdinc
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nayir
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arican
authors.forename: Metin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ozkan
authors.forename: Alper
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sevinc
authors.forename: Gokhan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Demir
authors.forename: Burcin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Budakoglu
authors.forename: Abdurrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Issikdogan
authors.forename: Huseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Engin
authors.forename: Saadettin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kilickap
authors.forename: Ugur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Coskun
authors.forename: Basak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Oyan
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harputluoglu
authors.forename: Ozlem
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Er
authors.forename: Halil
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kavgaci
authors.forename: Tamer
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Elk Ran
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012878:Skin Neoplasms; D014421:Turkey; D000096142:Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma