Abstract
BACKGROUND: The incidence and mortality rates associated with cutaneous melanoma (CM) have steadily increased over the last 20 years. Even with successful treatment, melanoma patients usually experience substantial anxiety regarding the development of terrible recurrence. To date, few studies have investigated various dermatoses what the patients with CM had anxiety for the recurrence during postoperative surveillance (Dw). OBJECTIVE: To describe various Dw and to evaluate the risk of subsequent malignant skin disease in patients with CM. METHODS: We performed a prospective study between August 2002 and August 2015. RESULTS: Fifty-six patients presented with a total of 68 Dw. Among them, melanocytic nevus was the most common (n=27), followed by seborrheic keratosis (n=9) and CM recurrence (n=7). Approximately 5.6% of the lesions were diagnosed as malignant skin diseases. This was a single-center study, so the prevalence of malignant skin diseases following primary melanoma may not represent that of all patients with CM. CONCLUSION: The results of this study can be referred by dermatologists dealing with melanoma especially when CM patients have too excessive or unrealistic anxiety for melanoma recurrence during postoperative surveillance of CM. However, the importance of postoperative surveillance must still be emphasized because of real risk of melanoma recurrence and other malignant skin.