Trends in the characteristics of skin melanoma in accordance with time intervals: A single Turkish tertiary referral center experience.

Abstract

The incidence of skin melanoma has increased dramatically in recent years. The aim of this study was to analyze the trends in the features of Turkish cutaneous melanoma patients in a 25-year period. A total of 1258 adult melanoma patients who had been managed and followed up at a tertiary referral center between 1993 and 2017 were included in the study. Males were predominant which did not vary between time intervals. There was an increase in the percentage of older patients over the years, whereas no change was observed in the percentage of younger patients. As the percentage of lower extremity melanoma dropped, the percentage of truncal melanomas rose. Both the incidences of thick (T3-T4) and thin melanomas (T1) were found to increase over time by 13.4% and 3.8%, respectively. There was no significant change in the percentage of the metastatic disease; however, Stage III disease was found to multiply by 10.1% and local disease was found to fall by 8.5% over the period. The percentages of patients with nodular histopathology and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were found to plummet, and there was a slight decline in the percentages of patients with high mitotic rate and lymphovascular invasion. Most likely because of the delayed diagnosis, cutaneous melanoma was found to be associated with less favorable prognostic features as the time lapsed. We suggest that effective campaigns for public awareness of melanoma be implemented so the screening and early diagnosis of the disease can be promoted.