Enhanced Survival in Patients With Multiple Primary Melanoma

Abstract

OCCASIONALLY, CANCER is multicentric in nature. This may be due to an underlying genetic disposition, continuous initiation through exposure to carcinogenic stimuli, or by chance alone. Several cancers of the skin are often multicentric. Melanoma is no exception. Patients with melanoma are at greater risk of developing a second primary melanoma than the general population is at developing the first.¹ The frequency at which patients with single primary melanoma develop additional primary melanomas has ranged from 1.12% to 6.38% of cases in several series.^1-11 The development of 3 or more multiple primary melanomas occurred in 0.05% to 1.97% of these same patient populations.^2-5,7-10 For patients with thin primary melanomas, the risk of developing a second primary tumor may be greater than the risk of developing a metastasis, particularly in populations from regions with heavy sun exposure and increasing survival from malignant melanoma.