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    • Fast Facts

    Quick and informative melanoma facts

    • Melanoma, which begins in melanocyte cells, can rapidly spread to other organs if not detected and treated at an early stage.
    • This likeliness to spread and grow makes melanoma more dangerous, despite it being less common than other types of skin cancer.
    • Finding melanoma in existing moles occurs about 20% to 30% of the time compared with 70% to 80% of melanomas found on normal-looking skin.
    • Among men, melanoma most commonly appears on the chest and back while among women it most commonly appears on the legs. However, melanoma can, and does, develop anywhere on the skin, such as the palms of the hands, soles of the feet and under the nails.
    • A small portion of melanoma diagnoses can be attributed to inherited gene mutations, such as CDKNA2A. While tests are now available to detect this genetic mutation, the clinical usefulness is unclear.
    • For more than 20 years, deaths attributed to melanoma have increased. However, a recent study documented significant multiyear declines in population-level mortality associated with the introduction and approval of new treatments for metastatic melanoma.
    • Beginning in 2011 with the approval of the anti-CTLA-4 drug ipilimumab (Yervoy; Bristol-Meyers Squibb), the FDA approved 10 new therapies for the treatment of melanoma, including anti-PD-1 drug nivolumab (Opdivo; Bristol-Meyers Squib), BRAF and MEK inhibitors and talimogene laherparepvac (Imlygic, Amgen).
    • About 50% of all melanomas have an active BRAF mutation. Of these mutations, an estimated 90% occur at amino acid 600 and a majority are specifically BRAF V600E mutations. This may be an efficacious target for therapy, however concerns about resistance remain.
    • The diagnosis of melanoma is 20 times more common among white patients compared with black patients, with the lifetime risk for melanoma development at about 2.6%, 0.1% and 0.6% for white, black and Hispanic patients, respectively.
    • Although melanoma is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among young adults, the risk for melanoma development increased with age with the average age of diagnosis being 65 years.

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