The survival rate in patients with melanoma has improved

German researchers say survival rates in people diagnosed with melanoma, the worst form of skin cancer, have improved over the past 25 years.

In the article published in the Journal of Cancer, the researchers say melanoma can be completely cured if detected early. However, the improvement in the survival rate they studied may not be entirely due to the early diagnosis.

Dr. Claus Garbe and colleagues from Eberhard University - Karis in Tuebingen analyzed the survival rate of 4,791 patients who were diagnosed with invasive melanoma in southern Germany over the period from from 1976 to 2001 to assess factors related to high survival rates.

Malignant melanoma (Photo: Microscopyu.com)

In total, the proportion of patients diagnosed in the period 1990-2001 lived for 10 years, 88.6%, significantly higher than the rate of 80% in patients diagnosed in the period. time from 1976-1989.

One factor affecting the level of lethality of the tumor is its thickness. The researchers found that the average thickness of the tumor was reduced from 1.07 mm in the 1976-1989 period to 0.75 mm between 1990 and 2001.

Analysis results show that tumor thickness, ulcer, age, sex, surgical site, and initial diagnosis time can all help predict survival rates.

Dr. Garbe's group explained: 'Interestingly, we have found that survival rates in patients diagnosed with diseases since 1990 seem to have improved not necessarily because of early diagnosis. . That may be due to changes in biological characteristics that have not been documented in melanoma or progress in treating the disease. '

Linh Anh