Multiple primary melanoma: risk factors and prognostic implications

Patients who have had one cutaneous melanoma are at increased risk of developing a second primary melanoma. Previous studies may have overestimated this risk as they have been of patients from specialist referral centres and so are subject to selection bias.*RF 1-4* We report the risk of and mortality from multiple primary melanoma in a well defined, geographically based group of British patients with primary melanoma. Comparative survival curves in 38 matched patients with single and multiple primary melanomas The Scottish Melanoma Group maintains a well validated database of all cases of melanoma diagnosed in Scotland.5 We studied 3818 patients (from a population of 3 907 300) who had been registered with the group as having primary melanoma between 1979 and 1991. Forty five patients developed more than one histologically confirmed invasive primary …