Ulceration and Melanoma

One of the great mysteries in melanoma pathology is the etiology of ulceration. Clinically, the presence of ulceration has consistently been shown to be associated with lower survival rates compared with similar but nonulcerated lesions. In a recent analysis, investigators attempted to use the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database to tease out the effects of ulceration in a large cohort of melanomas.

The researchers compared tumors of differing depth (range, ≤1.00 mm to ≥4.01 mm) in 5106 patients and stratified the results by sex (3206 men) and age (younger, 10–39 years; older, 40–84 years). The incidence of ulceration was unaffected by tumor depth in younger men and older women. In younger women, u…