CANCER-RESEARCH CAMPAIGN HEALTH-EDUCATION PROGRAM TO PROMOTE THE EARLY DETECTION OF CUTANEOUS MALIGNANT-MELANOMA .2. CHARACTERISTICS AND INCIDENCE OF MELANOMA

The effect on the detection and characteristics of melanoma, resulting from the Cancer Research Campaign's health education programme to pro mote the early detection of melanoma in the general population, was st udied from 1987 to 1989. The seven study areas in England and Scotland yield a target population of 3.6 million. Data were collected from lo cal clinic-based registers, pathology laboratories, and the cancer reg istries. The average annual incidence rates of melanoma were seven and 12 per 10(5) in males and females, respectively, age-standardized to England and Wales, 1988. These rates are similar to the national figur es for Scotland, where there is a national melanoma register, but high er than those reported by the English and Welsh cancer registries. The incidence was significantly higher in females than males (P<0.001), a nd increased with age. fifty-three per cent and 65% of cases in males and females, respectively, were thin (Breslow thickness less than or e qual to 1.5 mm), similar to the national figures from Scotland. No sig nificant decrease in the incidence of late-stage tumours was found in either sex as a result of the campaign. Because of difficulties with a scertainment of cases in England, the main evaluation will focus on fu ture trends in mortality rates for melanoma.