Malignant melanoma of the lower extremity: Evaluation of 453 patients

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Abstract
Four hundred fifty‐three patients are evaluated regarding 10‐year survival rates. Females comprise 66%, and males the remainder (34%). The absolute 10‐year survival rate was 55.2% post therapy. Females had a remarkably better survival (64%) than the males (42%). Age did not affect the prognosis. Staging was most important in that 167 patients with Stage I had a 10‐year survival of 66%, which dropped for the 263 patients in Stage II (24%), and of the 23 patients classified as Stage III, only one (4%) survived 10 years. Of the 202 patients in clinical Stage I, 102 were subjected to an elective groin dissection which revealed occult metastases to lymph nodes in 35, whose 10‐year survival rate was 49%. In 100 patients, no elective groin dissection was performed, and 41 of these developed metastases to inguinal nodes at a later date. The 10‐year survival for that group was 32% — somewhat lower than the 49%. An elective groin dissection is indicated for invasive melanomas. An eleven percent mortality between the fifth and tenth year after therapy indicates that 10‐year survival rates should be recorded for melanomas.