Clinical Study

Health-Care Delay in Malignant Melanoma: Various Pathways to Diagnosis and Treatment

Table 1

Characteristics of included participants: gender related to age, tumor type, tumor thickness, and initial contact clinic.

TotalAll ( )Women ( )Men ( ) -value

Age (yrs)
 Median 60.056.563.00.0591
 Range 30–8030–7932–80
 ≤60 (%) 38 (53.5%)24 (63.2%)14 (42.4%)0.0812
 >60 (%) 33 (46.5%)14 (36.8%)19 (57.6%)
Tumor type (%)
 In situ22 (31.0%)18 (47.0%) 4 (12.0%)0.0062
 SSM38 (53.5%)15 (40.0%)23 (70.0%)
 NM11 (15.5%) 5 (13.0%) 6 (18.0%)
Tumor thickness (mm)
 Mean (SD)1.01 (1.19)0.84 (1.26)1.21 (1.09)
 Median (range)0.75 (0.00–5.90)0.25 (0.00–5.90)0.90 (0.00–4.10)0.0231
 ≤0.70 (%) 35 (49.3%)23 (60.5%)12 (36.4%)0.0422
 >0.70 (%) 36 (50.7%)15 (39.5%)21 (63.6%)
Initial contact clinic (%)
 PHCs53 (74.6%)30 (78.9%)23 (69.7%)0.3722
 Derm18 (25.4%) 8 (21.1%)10 (30.3%)

Mann-Whitney test. 2Chi-square test. SSM: superficial spreading melanoma, NM: nodular melanoma, PHCs: primary health-care centres, Derm: dermatological and other specialist clinics.