Abstract
The prognosis of patients with melanoma can be improved by early diagnosis and excision. In 1981 a ‘Pigmented Lesion Clinic’ was started in Southampton to ensure that all patients who went to their general practitioner with a possible melanoma were seen in the dermatology department within 1 week. Before the clinic started an evening lecture was given to local general practitioners and all were sent a booklet containing colour photographs of the common pigmented skin lesions. During the following 4 years 92 of the 1530 patients seen in this clinic had a malignant melanoma. Sixty‐three per cent of the patients with malignant melanoma had skin type 1 or II and 62% blue or green eyes. Nineteen per cent had lived in Asia, Africa or Australia for more than I year. There was no correlation between the length of history as given by the patient and tumour thickness. Nor were bleeding or itching, present in 47% and 35% of patients respectively, factors which speeded up the patients presentation to their general practitioners. The mean thickness of the melanomas from patients attending the ‘Pigmented Lesion Clinic’ was not significantly different to that of the 42 patients with malignant melanomas referred to other specialists in Southampton not offering a rapid referral service—2.7 mm (± 2.3 mm S.D.) and 2.3 mm (± 2.9 mm S.D.) respectively. The results suggest that education of general practitioners without education of the general public did not improve the prognosis of patients with malignant melanoma in spite of easy access to hospital.
Published Version
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