LATE RECURRENCE OF MALIGNANT-MELANOMA (BE YOND 10 YEARS)

Late recurrence phenomenon in the course of melanoma (i. e. first recu rrence after a 10 years or more disease free interval) is often ignore d. Eleven cases and a literature review are presented. Main conclusion s are: lack of clinical or pathological criteria predicting the risk f or a given patient, possible underevaluation of the number of patients affected by these late recurrences, due to a premature follow up cess ation, advantage of prolonged clinical follow up over ten years aimed at early diagnosis of locoregional metastasis which may benefit from s uccessful surgical treatment.