Malignant melanoma prognostic factors 6: distant metastases and length of survival.

Surgical resectability is the most important prognostic factor for determining the length of survival following distant metastases. Other important factors that derive prognostic significance from their correlation with surgical resectability include (1) number of metastatic sites, (2) performance status, (3) initial site of metastases, (4) interval between initial diagnosis of primary tumor and onset of distant metastases. Factors which have little or no prognostic value include location of the primary tumor, sex, age and histological characteristics of the primary tumor.