ABSTRACT
In countries with substantially caucasian populations, the incidence of cutaneous melanoma has risen sharply over recent decades.1-5 Epidemiological investigations suggest that increasing melanoma rates are real and due primarily to increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation, rather than a consequence of more complete reporting. Mortality trends in white populations have also been increasing but less steeply than incidence rates1 and, on a cohort basis, mortality appears to have stabilized or started to decline.1,6-8
Approximately 10-20% of cutaneous malignant melanomas arise on the skin of the head and neck.4,9 In a series of 998 patients with cutaneous melanoma of the head and neck treated at the Sydney Melanoma Unit, the male to female ratio was 3:2 and the age incidence fairly evenly distributed through the adult decades.10 Melanoma rarely occurs during childhood and adolescence. Table 23.1 shows the distribution of head and neck cutaneous melanoma by subsite with the face being the commonest individual primary site in the report from the
Subsite Primary melanomas (%) Face 47
Neck 29
Scalp 15
Ear 10
Data from O′Brien et al.10
