ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Malignant melanoma remains one of the most serious lifethreatening cancers of the skin with over 55,100 new cases having been diagnosed in the United States in 2004. The incidence of melanoma has doubled over the last 25 years, with current reports stating that it is now the fifth and seventh most common cancer among men and women, respectively. Approximately one out of 64 Americans was estimated to have developed melanoma in 2004, with this number expected to rise in the future partially due to increased surveillance and a shift to intermittent sun exposure. The greatest increase in diagnosis has been in thin tumors, with the proportion of ‘‘in situ’’ melanomas having risen from less than 10% in the late 1970s to greater than 40% today. The fact that patients are now presenting at an earlier stage of tumor development may account for the disproportionate increase in incidence over mortality.
