THE CENTRAL MALIGNANT-MELANOMA REGISTRY O F THE GERMAN-DERMATOLOGICAL-SOCIETY 1983 TO 1993 - EPIDEMIOLOGIC TRENDS AND CURRENT TREATMENT OF CUTANEOUS MELANOMA

The Central Malignant Melanoma Registry of the German Dermatological S ociety was founded in 1983 and has meanwhile developed into a major co ntinuously updated multicentre project. Up to June 1994, 19250 reports of cutaneous melanoma had been received, from 41 departments of derma tology in the former Federal Republic of Germany, from 14 departments in the former German Democratic Republic, from 2 departments in Austri a, and from 1 department in Switzerland. Analysis of the data revealed some epidemiological trends over time during the years 1983 to 1993. (1) During the last 10 years the percentage of male patients has stead ily increased, from an average of 38% in the year 1983 to 46%; in 1993 . (2) Early diagnosis of malignant melanoma improved during the period of time investigated. The percentage of diagnoses of primary tumour a lone increased between 1983 and 1993. The mean tumour thickness (Bresl ow) decreased in the West Germany from 1.8 mm to 1.3 mm and in East Ge rmany from 2.5 mm to 1.7 mm. The proportion of nodular melanoma decrea sed correspondingly from 29% to 14% in the former Federal Republic of Germany and from 40.6% to 22.6% in the former Germany Democratic Repub lic. During the years 1990 and 1993, 64% of melanoma patients with the primary tumour alone were operated on in two consecutive sessions in the former Federal Republic of Germany and 34.2% of those in the forme r Germany Democratic Republic. During this period 73.7% of all melanom a patients were operated on under local anaesthesia. In recent years s urgical operations were more often performed in two consecutive sessio ns, mostly under local anaesthesia and with decreasing safety margins, in keeping with the decrease in tumour thickness. The present analysi s shows that the Central Malignant Melanoma Registry is an important i nstrument far investigating trends in clinical epidemiology and treatm ent of malignant melanoma in the German-speaking countries.