Langford F P, Fisher S R, Molter D W, Seigler H F
Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
Laryngoscope. 1993 May;103(5):520-4. doi: 10.1288/00005537-199305000-00007.
Historically, lentigo maligna melanoma has been considered a "favorable" histological type of melanoma, and treatment by wide local excision was considered curative. A retrospective multivariate analysis of 143 head and neck patients with stage I lentigo maligna melanoma was performed from a database of 1067 head and neck patients followed at Duke Medical Center. Fifty-six percent of all lentigo maligna melanomas presented with lesions deeper than 0.76 mm, and 8% presented with stage II or III disease. Recurrent disease occurred in 45% of stage I patients, with a 5-year disease-free interval of 6 years and a median survival time of 10 years. Multivariate analysis demonstrated no significant difference in disease-free interval or survival by histological subtype. The data suggest that treatment should be based on tumor thickness and not histologic subtype.
