DIAGNOSIS IN MALIGNANT-MELANOMA

A uniform and practical classification and staging system for melanoma must exist and be widely adopted if useful comparisons between differ ent treatment centers and databases are to be made. This article revie ws the 1992 American Joint Committee on Cancer pTNM staging system. In this classification, localized disease without regional nodal involve ment is defined as stage I or II, depending on the tumor thickness of the primary melanoma. Regional lymph node involvement and/or in-transi t metastasis is defined as stage III, and systemic metastatic disease is defined as stage IV.