Acral lentiginous melanoma versus lentigo maligna melanoma among Iraqi patients

To report the different clinical aspects of malignant melanoma and their varieties in Iraqi patients.

We carried out this study in the Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq during the period from 1985-2005. Eighteen patients with malignant melanoma were enrolled in this work. The different clinical aspects and histopathological examination were determined.

The study population consisted of 18 patients (15 females and 3 males) with a female to male ratio of 5:1. Their ages ranged from 12-75 years (mean +/- SD, 43.72 +/- 14.75 years) while the duration of the disease ranged between 0.25-5 years (1.98 +/- 1.44 years). The duration of acral lentiginous melanoma was 0.5-4 years (2.16 +/- 1.36 years) and in nodular type was 0.5-3 years (1.28 +/- 0.90 years), while in lentigo maligna melanoma was 1.5-5 years (3.37 +/- 1.49 years). Regarding the location and gender of the patients affected, 6 cases (all females) were on the acral parts of the body (4 on the feet, and 2 on the hands), 5 patients (all females) on the face, 5 cases (4 females and one male) on the lower legs, while the remaining 2 male cases, was on the interscapular region and the other one on the elbow area.

We conclude that malignant melanoma in Iraqi patients is a disease of younger females, which presented mainly as acral lentiginous melanoma, nodular melanoma and lentigo maligna melanoma and superficial spreading melanoma.