MELANOMA IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA IN 1980-81 - INCIDENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF HISTOLOGICAL TYPES

Abstract

All cutaneous malignant melanomas diagnosed in Western Australia in 1980-81 were reviewed and classified according to histological type (i.e., superficial spreading melanoma, Hutchinson's melanotic freckle melanoma (lentigo maligna melanoma), nodular melanoma and melanoma of unclassifiable type). The most common invasive melanoma was superficial spreading melanoma with an incidence rate of 14.3 per 100,000 person-years in females and 9.0 in males. It most commonly affected the trunk in males and the lower limbs in females and showed a peak incidence in middle life. Invasive Hutchinson's melanotic freckle melanoma was much less common than invasive superficial spreading melanoma (1.8 per 100,..