Survival rates of patients with malignant melanoma of the skin.

This paper reports on cases of malignant melanoma of the skin diagnosed in Finland between 1963 and 1968. Sufficient data for estimating the survival was obtained in 691 cases. The ten-year relative survival rate for the entire series was 41% for males and 53% for females. This sex difference remained constant throughout the various divisions of the material. The ten-year relative survival rate of males with tumour in stage I was 52% and that of females 59%. The highest survival rate of stage I tumour in males was for the tumours of the lower extremities (77%) and in females for those in the head and neck (79%). The relative survival of patients with tumour of the trunk in stage I was lowest in both sexes (males 49%, females 45%). The ten-year relative survival rate of patients with a local recurrence was 33% in males and 27% in females. The relative ten-year survival rates of patients with superficial melanoma were 130% in males and 92% in females.