Ambulatory narrow excision for thin melanoma (< or = 2 mm): results of a prospective study

Although narrow surgical excision may be sufficient for thin melanoma, questions remain concerning how narrow the excision should be and how it should be related to tumour thickness. To address these issues, a group of 168 consecutive patients with primary invasive melanoma up to 2 mm thick underwent ambulatory surgery with excision margins of 1 cm. 40 (24%) of these patients had lesions thicker than 1 mm. In a median follow-up of 5 years, 11 patients relapsed and 3 developed second malignancies. The crude cumulative incidence of regional and distant metastases were, respectively, 5.6% and 1.5%. No local isolated recurrence was observed, indicating that ambulatory narrow excision is justified for melanoma up to 2 mm thick.