Acquired Precursors of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma

Abstract

THE incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma is rising rapidly throughout the world.¹ The most current data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) system reveal an 80 per cent increase in the incidence of melanoma in the United States between 1973 and 1980 (Shambaugh E, Greene MH, Young J: unpublished observations) — a rate of increase second only to that of lung cancer in women. Diagnosis and surgical excision of strictly defined early melanoma (2 ^{, 3} Thus, the need for wide dissemination of clinical criteria . . .