Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Malignant melanoma is one of the fatal cutaneous neoplasms which are curable by early diagnosis. This neoplasm is diagnosed by the biopsy of the suspected lesion. It is essential to classify the tumor based on its histology, thickness, phase of growth, level of invasion, mitotic rate, presence of regression, inflammatory infiltration and ulceration. These descriptions yield some knowledge about the progression of disease and suggest an estimate of the status of the screening system for early diagnosis.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional retrospective descriptive study. Pathological slides with diagnosis of malignant melanoma from 1377 to 1379 that present in the pathology department were assessed according to mentioned pathological indices and the 10-year survival calculated in this regard.        

Results: We assessed 47 cases with mean age of 57.38 (SD=5.85) and the gender distribution was 51.1% male and 42.2% female. More than 42% of cases were in Clarke level I, 2.1% Clarke level II, 6.4% Clarke level III, 40.4% Clarke level IV and 8.5% Clarke level V. Fifty three percent of patients were breslow thickness equal to or less than 0.75 millimeter(mm) , 8.5% between 0.76 to 1.69 mm , 27.7% between 1.7 to 3.6 mm and 10.6% greater than 3.61 mm. Mean breslow thickness show no significant difference between males and females but there is a significant relation between thickness and age of the patients. Mean 10-year survivals of patients were 75% and were greater in females than males. We found a linear relation between patient age and breslow thickness that is calculated by the following equation: Log Breslow thickness (mm) = - 0.625 + 0.016×age (year)

Conclusion: Complete recording of clinical and pathological data of patients with malignant melanoma make a proper stream to reach a surveillance system.