[Surgical treatment of superficial melanoma of the skin].

The 12-year end-results of standard "wide" and sparing "narrow" excision of superficial skin melanoma are compared. The results were contributed by a joint study of the WHO Collaborating Centers for Evaluation of Methods of Diagnosis and Treatment of Melanoma headed by Dr. U. Veronesi and Dr. N. Cascinelli and 23 other centers in different countries (the Blokhin and Petrov Centers in Russia). The investigation comprised 612 patients. After randomization, "narrow" excision of primary tumor with 1 cm-wide margins was performed in 305 patients. In the remaining 307 patients, "wide" excision left margins within 3 cm. Tumor was identified as superficial on the basis of thickness (Breslow), the threshold being 2 mm-thick invasion. This same prognostic indicator was used in both groups. Another one was 12 year-long recurrence-free survival. The sparing excision of primary cutaneous melanoma with a thickness under 2 cm proved effective.