[Latest approaches in the surgical treatment of cutaneous malignant melanoma]

Malignant melanoma is a disease with an unpredictable evolution. Detected in stage I and II has a great chance to cure, if it is correctly treated: excisional biopsy with safety margins in accordance with tumor thickness. Lymphoscintigraphy with sentinel node identification and biopsy became compulsory for staging malignant melanoma, the role of complete lymphadenectomy would be established by publishing the MSLTII data. The sentinel node is analysed using more and more sophisticated techniques (RT-PCR) in order to detect isolated tumoral cells, although their clinical significance is not known yet. Metastases occurrence is a dramatic phenomenon because chemotherapy, radiotherapy or biologic therapy have insignificant results. The only therapeutic modality which may increase survival in this situation is surgery for some carefully selected patients.