Change of epidemiological characteristics of malignant melanoma during the years 1962-1972 and 1983-1986 in the Federal Republic of Germany.

In the FRG data on more than 2,000 patients with malignant melanoma (MM) have been documented so far by the malignant melanoma cooperative group (MMCG 1962-1972) and by the central malignant melanoma registry of the German Dermatological Society (CMMR 1983-1988). In this study we compared the basic characteristics between these two multicenter data collections (CMMR until 1986) in order to detect any changes in clinical epidemiology of MM diagnosed within the past 20 years. The age distribution of the patients with MM at the time of first diagnosis did not reveal any change: a similar portion of patients was under 50 years of age (1962-72: males 44%, females 45%; 1983-86: males 44%, females 47%). The percentage of males with MM, however, increased in the CMMR group (35-41%) and the portion of tumors localized on the trunk was found markedly increased in both sexes (males: 39-56%, females: 15-25%). Comparison of the tumor thickness indicated some significant advance in the early recognition of MM: the percentage of thick tumors (greater than 1.5 mm) decreased between both time periods (males: 72-41%; females: 60-37%) with a corresponding elevation of thinner tumors. Nevertheless, during both time periods the first diagnosis was metastasizing melanoma in about 10% of all patients. Also, the proportion of prognostically unfavorable, nodular malignant melanomas remained nearly constant (about 30% of all patients in both groups).