Adequate Follow-Up Contributes Substantially to Survival of Melanoma Patients

German researchers have found that a thorough and scheduled follow-up contributes to cutaneous melanoma patients survival more than any expensive and time-consuming adjuvant drug therapy.

They studied 2,008 patients over a 2-year period, who were followed according to the German Society of Dermatology Guidelines. Over the 2 years, 3,800 clinical examinations were conducted and 12,398 x-ray and sonographic images were made. This detected 62 second primary melanomas in 46 patients and 233 disease recurrences in 112 patients. 48% of the discoveries were categorized as early detection at the time of diagnosis and considered to be curable by surgery.

Researchers concluded that surveillance by scheduled follow-up examinations should be well designed according to the respective patient’s risk and then strictly followed by the patient and doctor.

(Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology 2003; 21: 520-529)