Hossain Kawosi; Nader Salari; Arash Golpazir Sorkhe; Ibrahim Shakiba; Roya Safarpour; Masoud Mohammadi
Abstract
Background: Malignant melanoma is a prevalent, offensive, andfatal cancer in developed countries. Most of our information isrelated to studies conducted in western countries. This studyaims to evaluate demographic and clinical data of melanoma inthe Kermanshah province of Iran.Method: This was a descriptive ...
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Background: Malignant melanoma is a prevalent, offensive, andfatal cancer in developed countries. Most of our information isrelated to studies conducted in western countries. This studyaims to evaluate demographic and clinical data of melanoma inthe Kermanshah province of Iran.Method: This was a descriptive study on data available in theCancer Registry Center of Kermanshah, which includes 70patients during eight years from 2010–2017. Clinical recognitionof melanoma was based on American Joint Committee on Cancercriteria. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software and shown inArcGIS (Version 10.7).Results: Patients included 46 men (65.7%) and 24 women (34.3%)with a mean age of 60.49 ± 16.08. The general prevalence ofmelanoma was 4.4 in every 1,000,000 persons annually. Mostpatients had skin type III (65.7%), indoor jobs (61.4%), and livedin the city (67.1%). Also, 35.7% had a trauma history, 2.8% hadfamilial melanoma history, and 17.1% had other types of skincancer. Extremities (51.4%), acral lentiginous melanoma (50.1%),Clark IV (61.4%), and inguinal lymph nodes (14.3%) were themost prevalent location, clinical type, pathological level, andinvolved lymph nodes, respectively.Conclusion: Acral lentiginous melanoma and extremitiesinvolvement are prevalent in our region. Most patients go todoctors at an advanced level due to delays in referral, lack offollow-up by patients, lack of recognition at the initial care level,and lack of access to specialty centers. We recommend generalinstructions through media and holding special workshops forphysicians for better familiarity with melanoma.
