Gender and cutaneous melanoma

Current evidence suggesting that a patient's sex is relevant to the progression of cutaneous melanoma is largely epidemiological. Although databases of patients with melanomas have for many years shown a survival advantage for female patients with primary melanoma, it has been difficult to evaluate the contribution of other known prognostic variables such as thickness and site of the primary tumour, factors which also tend to be related to sex. In addition, there are data from a limited number of experimental studies and clinical trials which support the concept of female survival superiority in melanoma. This paper attempts to summarize the evidence for gender being an important factor in melanoma survival.