Características del melanoma cutáneo en dos instituciones de Bogotá, Colombia: Análisis 2012-2016

SUMMARY   INTRODUCTION: Melanoma is a cutaneous neoplasm originated in melanocytes. This tumor, despite representing only 5% of skin neoplasms, is responsible for 70% of deaths caused by skin cancer. In Colombia, it has been reported a mortality of 0.5 / 100,000 inhabitants with a survival rate of 79% at 5 years. However, national data is not clear, displaying a clear necessity to characterize patients with this diagnosis to contribute in further epidemiological studies.   METHODOLOGY: Cross-sectional study in which where included and analyzed the clinical, demographic and histopathological records of patients with histopathological diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma attended in two dermatological centers of Bogota, Colombia, during the years 2012-2016.   RESULTS: A total of 255 patients were included, most of them women (61.0%). An increase from 22 to 64 cases diagnosed was observed in 2012 and 2016 respectively. The most frequent histological subtype was malignant lentigo (27.8%) followed by lentiginous acral melanoma (17.6%). The main location was the face (43.1%). The time between detection and confirmation of diagnosis by biopsy was 17 months. 59.2% of the cases corresponded to a Breslow index <1 and 42.4% of the cases to a Clark level of I.   CONCLUSIONS: There was an increase in the number of new cases of cutaneous melanoma between 2012 and 2016, the most frequently diagnosed subtypes being lentigo maligna and acral lentiginous melanoma. The average diagnosis time was prolonged.