Epidemiological Study of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma in Shiraz, Southwest of Iran between 2011 and 2016

Background- Melanoma is the most deadly of all skin cancers in the world, its incidence rate has increased in the last decades. We aim to define the frequency, and epidemiologic features of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma Cases diagnosed between 2011 and 2016 in teaching hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, southwest of Iran. Materials and Methods- This descriptive cross-sectional study was have performed at hospitals affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences from 2011 to 2016. Pathology reports collected from the laboratory along with general information such as age, sex, site of the tumor and had ulceration or not. SPSS version 23 statistical software was used for data analyzing. P-values less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results- A total of 183 cases of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma were registered in Faghihi Teaching hospital, 7 cases in Namazi Teaching Hospital and 6 cases in Motahari clinic in Shiraz, between 2011 and 2016. The average age was 64.5 years with age range of 1year to 89 years, mostly in women (51.5%) and also most of the tumor sites were in the foot 46 (23.5%) and then in the scalp 20 (10.2%). The incidence of ulceration was 41 (20.9%), and the most common stage of the tumor was stage one. Conclusion- The results proved the importance of awareness of the physicians about the frequency and epidemiologic features of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma in their region that they can diagnose or screen and treat them more earlier in better ways.