Evaluation of Prognostic Factors in our Malignant Melanoma Cases

Introduction: Melanomas are neoplasms that usually develop on the skin with a high prevalence and a mortality rate that is increasing year by year. Studies reflecting the data of this neoplasm, which has a very high mortality rate in our country, are still limited today. Our aim in our study was to retrospectively evaluate the skin melanoma cases treated in our hospital and to compare them with other studies. Material and Method: The clinical and histopathological features of 57 patients diagnosed with skin melanoma in the pathology clinic of our hospital between 2010 and 2019 were examined. Results: The mean age (1956) of patients was 63.18  16.54 years. The lesions were located in the head and neck in 21 patients (36.8%), in the lower extremities in 16 patients (28.1%), in the upper extremities in 11 patients (19.3%) and in the trunk in 9 patients (15.8%). Metastasis developed in 9 (15.8%) patients during a minimum 1-year and maximum 10-year follow-up of our cases. In the present study, 40 patients (70.2%) were diagnosed with nodular melanoma, 8 (14%) with superficial melanoma, 2 (3.5%) with lentigo and 7 (12.3%) with acral melanoma. Discussion and Conclusion: As a result, most of our melanoma cases appeared as nodular type in the head and neck region due to sun exposure. Our study showed that these patients applied to the health institution in the late stage. In melanoma, early diagnosis seriously affects the prognosis.