Trends in survival from malignant melanoma: remarkable improvement in 23 years

Trends in incidence of and mortality and survival from malignant melanoma in Sweden for 1960 through 1982 were analyzed. Incidence rates increased annually by 5.4% for females and by 5.8% for males, whereas mortality rates increased annually by 2.7% for females and 3.3% for males. For females, the 5-year relative survival (RS) rates increased by approximately 15 percentage points before 1970. In contrast, males before 1970 had a successive improvement in RS rates of 4.6-8.2 percentage points for each 5-year period of diagnosis. Multivariate analyses revealed that during the study period the malignant melanoma-specific hazard decreased by 71% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 59%-79%] for females and by 64% (95% CI = 54%-73%) for males during the first 5 years of follow-up.