The rise in thick melanomas: can early detection reduce the burden?

Abstract

We sought to describe trends in the incidence of invasive melanoma by histological subtype and thickness in two populations with different approaches to the early detection of melanoma (the US White population and Queensland, Australia). The incidence of thick melanoma (> 4.00 mm) increased over the period 1999–2018 at a faster rate than thinner melanomas in both populations, and the increase was driven primarily by increases in melanoma of the nodular subtype. Thin melanomas (< 1.00 mm) were overwhelmingly of the superficial spreading subtype, whereas thick melanomas (> 4.00 mm) were dominated by nodular melanomas.