Epidemiological study of malignant melanoma in Kermanshah province of Iran in 2010-2016 based on the geographic information system

Malignant melanoma is a prevalent, offensive, and fatal cancer in developed countries. Most of our information is related to studies conducted in western countries. This study aims to evaluate demographic and clinical data of melanoma in the Kermanshah province of Iran.

This was a descriptive study on data available in the Cancer Registry Center of Kermanshah, which includes 70 patients during eight years from 2010–2017. Clinical recognition of melanoma was based on American Joint Committee on Cancer criteria. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software and shown in ArcGIS (Version 10.7).

Patients included 46 men (65.7%) and 24 women (34.3%) with a mean age of 60.49 ± 16.08. The general prevalence of melanoma was 4.4 in every 1,000,000 persons annually. Most patients had skin type III (65.7%), indoor jobs (61.4%), and lived in the city (67.1%). Also, 35.7% had a trauma history, 2.8% had familial melanoma history, and 17.1% had other types of skin cancer. Extremities (51.4%), acral lentiginous melanoma (50.1%), Clark IV (61.4%), and inguinal lymph nodes (14.3%) were the most prevalent location, clinical type, pathological level, and involved lymph nodes, respectively.

Acral lentiginous melanoma and extremities involvement are prevalent in our region. Most patients go to doctors at an advanced level due to delays in referral, lack of follow-up by patients, lack of recognition at the initial care level, and lack of access to specialty centers. We recommend general instructions through media and holding special workshops for physicians for better familiarity with melanoma.