Evaluation of public education campaigns in cutaneous melanoma: the King's College Hospital experience.

The effects of a public education campaign directed at earlier self-recognition of malignant melanoma were assessed at King's College Hospital by reviewing the pathology of all melanomas seen between 1970 and 1987. During the campaign years (1986 and 1987) the number of patients with melanomas nearly doubled, and there was an increase in the proportion of thin, good prognosis lesions, and a fall in the proportion and absolute number of thick lesions. Data from the earlier years showed that median melanoma thickness had been decreasing throughout the series, well before the introduction of the campaign. A greater proportion of tumours of the superficial spreading variety was seen and also an increase in patients below the age of 40. These findings suggest that the biological characteristics of melanomas might be changing in addition to increased public and professional awareness.