Treatment of Primary Melanomas

Abstract

The great majority of patients with newly diagnosed melanomas have early-stage disease that is clinically localized to the primary site (AJCC stages I and II). Surgical strategies to treat early-stage melanomas today include two main components: wide excision of the primary melanoma (or biopsy site) and evaluation of the regional lymph node basin by sentinel lymph node biopsy. In the past, the recommended treatment of primary melanoma was aggressive surgery, involving wide resection margins of 3–5 cm around the primary melanoma and, frequently, elective radical dissection of the regional node basin. However, this strategy was not based on sound evidence, but principally on the clinical impre..