Optimal resection margin for cutaneous malignant melanoma

Cutaneous malignant melanoma has traditionally been treated by "wide" local excision with a 5-cm margin of normal skin about the tumor. The rationale of wide excision for melanoma has never been clearly defined, but the procedure is known to be effective in preventing local recurrence. We studied 105 patients who had 109 primary melanomas in 1977 and related margin width of the definitive excision to the presence of satellites, to the subsequent development of local recurrence and in-transit metastases, and to survival. Survival was not dependent on margin width, and there were no incidences of local recurrence. Satellitosis and in-transit cutaneous metastasis indicate that a melanoma is capable of local recurrence; these phenomena occurred only in tumors whose thickness (Breslow) was greater than 2.0 mm. These data provide a rationale for wide excision of "thick" melanomas and support more modest local therapy for thin cutaneous melanoma.