Staging and prognosis of melanoma

Prognosis and survival for patients diagnosed with melanoma depends on a number of interrelated factors, including histological, clinical, immunologic, and surgical parameters. Tumor thickness and depth of invasion is the most important prognostic factor, and helps to guide treatment and management plans. Besides tumor thickness, other histological criteria include melanoma growth phase (nodal v. vertical), host response, angiolymphatic invasion, mitotic rate, regression, satellitosis, and neurotropism. Important clinical prognostic factors include anatomic location of the melanoma and the patient's age and sex. Surgical factors to be examined involve excisional margin size, and elective lymph node dissection. Finally, the staging of patients with melanomas (nodal or visceral metastases) helps to define survival.