USEFULNESS OF PARACLINICAL FOLLOW-UP IN STAGE I MELANOMA

Melanoma is a malignant cutaneous tumor generally resistant to chemotherapy at the metastatic stage (III), for which dacarbazine remains the treatment of reference (mean response rate, 15%-25%). Progress in the treatment of melanoma depends in part on early detection of the tumor at stage I, allowing excision when Breslow thickness is minimal, and of metastases at stage III when low tumor mass is more sensitive to new treatments by active and passive immunotherapy. This suggests that systematic paraclinical explorations may be useful in the detection of metastases in the context of stage I melanoma. Accordingly, we reviewed the files of all patients treated and followed up for stage I melanoma for 5 years who benefited from the same paraclinical explorations. Other studies of this type have been reported, but only that of Iscoe et al, 1 dating back to 1987, is comparable to ours in its approach, number of patients,