Overview

Abstract (English)

The incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) worldwide continues to rise. We recently reported a comprehensive, population-based study of CMM in Canada during 1992-2010 and demonstrated a steady increase in its incidence across the Canadian provinces and territories, with a slight male predominance. Geographically, the highest CMM incidence rates were documented in the provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.2 We extended this study and examined data on CMM incidence by using the Canadian Cancer Registry (2015 version) for the years 2011 to 2015 for all Canadian provinces except Quebec by using the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, Third Edition, codes for all CMM subtypes, in a manner similar to that previously reported; we identified 27,095 patients (Table I). Consistent with the previously reported trends, this malignancy had a higher age-standardized incidence in males (23.2 cases per 100,000 in males per year vs 17.7 in females) . The mean age of diagnosis was 64.9 +/- 14.7 years for males and 60.4 +/- 18.8 years for females (62.8 +/- 16.8 years for both sexes during 2011-2015 versus 58.5 +/- 21.6 during 1992-2010) (Table II). Age range analysis confirmed these findings and showed that 60.3% of patients with CMM in Canada during the period from 2011 to 2015 were age 60 years or older (vs 48.7% in 1992-2010) (Table I), with an overall increased percentage of the Canadian population older than 60 years in 2011-2015 (20.8% vs 17.4% in 1992-2010). This finding suggests that increasing age of the population contributes significantly to the increasing incidence of CMM.

Abstract (French)

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