BACKGROUND - Melanoma is the most lethal cutaneous neoplasm and its incidence has increased worldwide. Statistical knowledge about the biological behavior of cutaneous melanoma is fundamental to guide clinical reasoning in daily practice as well as to contribute to public health policies. OBJECTIVES - To establish epidemiological data on melanoma in Florianopolis, Brazil. METHODS : A total of 496 reports of two pathology laboratories on 432 patients with pathological diagnosis of melanoma were analyzed in a six-year period. The protocol, based on the questionnaire of the Brazilian Melanoma Group, included sex, histological type, presence of nevus, Breslow tumor thickness, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, mitotic index, ulceration, surgical margins and metastasis. RESULTS - A total of 186 in situ, 210 invasive and 100 metastatic melanomas were observed. The most common histological type was superficial spreading melanoma (60%). The mean Breslow thickness of malignant lentigo and superficial spreading melanomas was 1.829 mm, and of nodular and acral melanoma was 5.035 mm (p<0.0001). The main metastasis sites were skin and subcutaneous tissue, lymph nodes and brain. CONCLUSIONS - In this study, the histopathological profile was superficial spreading, invasive, 1.25-mm Breslow thickness, with inflammatory infiltrate and free margin cutaneous melanomas.
Diagnosis; Melanoma; Melanoma; Skin neoplasms
