Delay in cutaneous melanoma diagnosis

Abstract

Advanced melanoma is an incurable disease with complex and expensive treatments. The best approach to prevent melanoma at advanced stages is an early diagnosis. A knowledge of factors associated with the process of detecting cutaneous melanomas and the reasons for delays in diagnosis is essential for the improvement of the secondary prevention of the disease.Identify sociodemographic, individual, and medical aspects related to cutaneous melanoma diagnosis delay.Interviews evaluated the knowledge of melanoma, signals, symptoms, persons who were suspected, delays in seeking medical attention, physician's deferrals, and related factors of 211 patients.Melanomas were self-discovered in 41.7% of the patients; healthcare providers detected 29.9% of patients and others detected 27%. The main component in delay was patient-related. Only 31.3% of the patients knew that melanoma was a serious skin cancer, and most thought that the pigmented lesion was not important, causing a delay in seeking medical assistance. Patients (36.4%) reported a wait interval of more than 6 months from the onset of an observed change in a pigmented lesion to the first visit to a physician. The delay interval from the first physician visit to a histopathological diagnosis was shorter (<1 month) in 55.5% of patients. Improper treatments without a histopathological confirmation occurred in 14.7% of patients. A professional delay was related to both inappropriate treatments performed without histopathological confirmation (P = 0.003) and long requirements for medical referrals (P < 0.001).A deficient knowledge in the population regarding melanoma and physicians’ misdiagnoses regarding suspicious lesions contributed to delays in diagnosis.

[Retracted] Upregulation of miR‐29c‐3p Hinders Melanoma Progression by Inhibiting CDCA4 Expression

“…However, those treatment regimens are more or less potentially dangerous [ 5 ]. Progression to advanced MM leads to greatly reduced therapeutic effectiveness and high cost, and the best way to prevent the progression is early diagnosis [ 6 ]. At present, the diagnosis of MM mainly relies on pathological biopsy and computer-assisted imaging techniques which have the limitations of low acceptability, high cost, and complicated operation [ 7 ].…”

Clinical spectrum of cutaneous melanoma morphology

“…Increased time to diagnosis is associated with increased stage, thickness, and likelihood of distant metastasis 2 . Some studies ascribe delayed diagnosis to patient-related causes 3–6 , such as inability to identify early melanoma features 7 or lack of concern or knowledge 8, 9 , while some ascribe it to physician delay 10–12 . Patients identify most melanomas 13, 14 , but melanomas identified by dermatologists are associated with thinner and more curable tumors 4, 6, 15–19 .…”

A long-term survivor with esophageal melanoma and pulmonary metastasis after single-stage esophagectomy and lobectomy

“…However, physicians’ empirical misdiagnosis regarding suspicious lesions contributes to delay in treatment of melanoma. [ 6 ] Precise diagnosis and timely resection are essential for PMME patients; accordingly, there are several issues that need to be further elucidated, which might contribute to the long-term, recurrence-free survival of this patient.…”