Narrower Margins for Clinical Stage I Malignant Melanoma

Panic after a diagnosis of cutaneous malignant melanoma commonly arises from fears of early death and disfiguring surgery. Yet, in the United States today, most cutaneous melanomas are diagnosed while they are in an early and curable stage, before metastases have occurred. We submit that surgery more conservative than that commonly practiced is warranted not only for these localized melanomas but also for some melanomas with a greater probability of metastasizing. This conclusion is based on our experience and on recent reports showing that the magnitude of surgical resection margins has no effect on survival, even for high-risk melanomas.1 2 3 Early . . .