[Prevention of cutaneous melanoma]

Cutaneous melanoma exhibited a rapidly increasing incidence during the 70 s and 80 s. As a consequence primary and secondary prevention campaigns were developed, starting in Australia, where the incidence was by far the highest, but later also in the Netherlands. Mortality from melanoma in the Netherlands is stable at a rate of 2.4 per 100,000 person years since 1980. The melanoma incidence has stabilized since 1989 at a level of about 11 per 100,000. In the development of the melanoma it is not so much the accumulated exposure to sun that is of importance, as in squamous carcinoma, but rather incidental serious sunburn. It is especially exposure at an early age that increases the risk of melanoma as well as that of basal cell carcinoma. Primary prevention must be focussed on avoiding sunburn in young people. Secondary prevention can be realised by frequent controls of risk groups and a raised awareness for changing moles in the general population but also in physicians who see patients' skins for whatever reason.