engleski

Frequency of primary skin melanoma in two Croatian regions

Incidence of malignant melanoma is constantly rising throughout the world during the last decade. The aim of our study was to analyze primary melanomas among the biopsy specimens in two hospitals during the 6-year period (1999 to 2004) ; one in Zagreb presenting the Continental part and another in Zadar presenting the Costal part of the country. We compared clinical parameters (sex, age distribution) and histological parameters (type, Clark and Breslow level of invasion) of primary melanomas between the two regions with different climatic characteristics. At the Ljudevit Jurak University Department of Pathology, University Hospital Sestre milosrdnice, Zagreb we used the computerized tumor registry Thanatos and at the Department of Pathology, General Hospital Zadar we used the tumor Registry to obtain relevant bioptic and clinical data of all patients with primary melanoma of the skin. In the above-mentioned period primary skin melanomas were found in 240 patients in Zagreb and in 101 cases in Zadar. F/M ratio was 1.16 amongst Zagreb patients, while the ratio was 0.94 amongst Zadar patients. The vast majority of primary skin melanomas were diagnosed on the trunk, followed by extremities and head & neck region. Nodular histological type was more frequent in Zadar patients, while superficial spreading type was the most common histological type among Zagreb patients. In both hospitals the average age was 58 years, age distribution was between 15 and 90 years in Zagreb University Hospital and between 10 and 91 years in the Zadar General Hospital. There is still a slight (10% more patients) predominance with advanced Clark stages among patients from Zadar. In our study distribution of analyzed clinical and histological parameters of primary skin melanomas among the biopsy specimens in continental and coastal region were similar

primary malignant melanoma ; incidence

nije evidentirano