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The presence of ulceration is an adverse prognostic factor in clinically-localised cutaneous primary melanoma (PM). However, whether the extent of ulceration has any prognostic importance remains unclear. We sought to determine the prognostic value of the extent of ulceration categorised as diameter of ulceration and as percentage of invasive melanoma.

Clinico-pathological data on patients with PM were collected from the Melanoma Institute Australia database. In patients with ulcerated melanomas, diameter and percentage ulceration (ratio of diameter of ulceration to diameter of invasive melanoma) were identified from the database or measured if slides were available for review. Ulceration was defined as full-thickness loss of epidermis overlying melanoma. The impact of clinico-pathologic parameters and extent of ulceration on survival was analysed.

Male sex, head/neck …