[Late recurrence of melanoma beyond 10 years]

Late recurrence phenomenon in the course of melanoma (i.e. first recurrence after a 10 years or more disease free interval) is often ignored. Eleven cases and a literature review are presented. Main conclusions are: --lack of clinical or pathological criteria predicting the risk for a given patient, --possible underevaluation of the number of patients affected by these late recurrences, due to a premature follow up cessation, --advantages of prolonged clinical follow up over ten years aimed at early diagnosis of locoregional metastasis which may benefit from successful surgical treatment.