signs and symptoms and biopsy for confirmation with a pathology report. Management of melanomas include excisional removal. Treatments for advanced or metastatic disease include interferon and vaccine therapy. Excision can be used for isolated and amenable lesions, melanomas usually are not radiation-sensitive, chemotherapeutic regimens can be used in combination with surgery, and hyperthermic therapy and limb perfusion can be used on extremities. Patients with a family or personal history of melanoma are at high risk for future development of melanoma; women with this history are discouraged from becoming pregnant for two years (Goldstein & Goldstein, 2001).
Weinstock (2000) reported that if an invasive melanoma is excised at less than 0.76 mm in Breslow thickness, they are around 96 percent curable, but
...