Systematic underreporting of cutaneous malignant melanoma in Massachusetts. Possible implications for national incidence figures.

Abstract

An independent tabulation of incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma in Massachusetts indicates that 12% and perhaps as many as 19% of new cases of cutaneous malignant melanoma in Massachusetts are not recorded in the Massachusetts Cancer Registry, significantly more than the expected 5% (p = 0.0001). The increasing number of nonhospital medical settings in which melanomas can be diagnosed and/or treated appears to account for this discrepancy. We suspect that these findings in Massachusetts also apply to cancer reporting systems in other regions of the United States. We suggest that the true incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma in Massachusetts, and perhaps in the United States, may be significantly higher than reported.