ReviewIncidence, mortality and survival in cutaneous melanoma
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Recent literature was reviewed to establish current cutaneous melanoma incidence, mortality and survival trends together with the latest information on aetiology and behaviour.
Medline and EMBase databases from 1980 to December 2005 were searched by using the ‘Explode’ command in Ovid to retrieve articles for a series of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) including cutaneous melanoma incidence or mortality or survival and sunlight, ultraviolet radiation, ozone, behaviour, and tan. Textword
Incidence
Worldwide incidence rates for CM vary up to 150-fold20 with World Health Organisation estimates of 132 000 new cases of CM per year internationally.20 In the UK, incidence rates have more than doubled over the last 20 years21 and in the last 5 years alone, CM incidence has increased by 28% in men and 12% in women.22 Similar increases have been seen across all populations (particularly Caucasian populations as these are approximately 20 times more likely to develop CM than darker skinned groups23
Discussion
Worldwide, the incidence of CM continues to rise overall although generally at a slower rate than that seen in the past. The exceptions to this trend are that the older male populations in whom increases in melanoma incidence, particularly in thick worse prognosis tumours, continue unabated. It appears that a significant proportion of the continued increment in CM incidence among younger age groups is in thinner better prognosis tumours. Although some of this may be due to earlier diagnosis,
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