Spatial density of primary malignant melanoma in sun-shielded body sites: A potential guide to melanoma genesis

Figures & data

Figure 1. Pigmented vulvar malignant melanoma (mucosal lentiginous type) on the medial part of the right labium minus of a 57-year-old female.

Table I. Density of primary malignant melanomas (MMs) at various anatomical sites of the body surface.

Gender	All cutaneous MMs (N)	Regional site	Regional site out of whole body surface (%)^a	MMs of regional site		Density ratio obs/exp MMs
				observed (N)	expected (N)
F	18 714^b	vulva	1	380^b	187	2.0
F + M	4 221^c	face	3.5	316^c	148	2.1
F + M	1 891^d	subungual	0.1	17^d	2	8.5
F + M	1 891^d	palms + soles	4.2	32^d	79	0.4

All numbers of the Density Ratio are on a significant level (p-value <0.001).

^aFor references and calculations – see text.

^bReported to the Swedish Cancer Registry 1960–1998 [10].

^cReported to the Stockholm-Gotland Regional Cancer Registry 1976–1994 [10,13].

^dReported to the Stockholm-Gotland Regional Cancer Registry 1976–1987 [10,14].

Table II. Density of primary malignant melanomas (MM) at various anatomical sites beneath the body surface.

Gender	All cutaneous MMs (N)	Body surface, average (cm^2)^a	MMs per cm^2 body surface	Regional site	MMs at regional site (N)	Regional site area, average (cm^2)^b	MMs per cm^2 regional site area	MMs per regional site area/MMs per body surface	Density ratio MMs at regional site/body surface
M	17 923^c	19 000	0.94	anal canal	56^c	38	1.47	1.47/0.94	1.6
F	19 176^c	17 000	1.13	anal canal	81^c	38	2.13	2.13/1.13	1.9
F	19 176^d	17 000	1.13	vagina	80^d	87	0.92	0.92/1.13	0.8
M	17 090^e	19 000	0.90	uvea	1542^e	34	45.35	45.35/0.90	50.4
F	18 334^e	17 000	1.07	uvea	1455^e	33	44.10	44.10/1.07	41.2

All numbers are aggregations, thus no statistical uncertainty could be calculated.

^aAccording the National Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics (males 1.9 m², females 1.7 m²) [17].

^bFor calculation of site areas – see text.

^cReported to the Swedish Cancer Registry 1960–1999 [10,19].

^dReported to the Swedish Cancer Registry 1960–1999 [10].

^eReported to the Swedish Cancer Registry 1960–1998 [4,10].

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