[Malignant melanoma -- a medical students' viewpoint]

Malignant melanoma is a primarily cutaneous melanocytic tumour with increasing incidence responsible for 90 % of skin cancer mortality. Genetic predisposition has been identified as the most important risk factor, while UV is second in importance and can be avoided. New diagnostic methods include sentinel lymph node biopsy and the detection of tumour markers in blood. Furthermore, malignant melanoma shows an extraordinary resistance to therapy; at present the only cure lies in early excision of the primary tumour. Thus early recognition is of utmost importance. Experimental approaches, such as dendritic cell vaccination, have shown some effectiveness which must be confirmed in multicenter, randomised trials.