Introduction:

Melanoma is a potentially lethal disease that is associated with a high morbidity and mortality rates due to the high risk of regional or distant nodal metastasis.

Objective:

To describe the demographic and clinical-pathological characteristics and the therapeutic procedure, as well as to determine the survival in the patients evaluated in the study.

Material and Methods:

A descriptive and retrospective study was carried out in a group of seventy-nine patients suffering from locally advanced stage III melanoma during 2003-2018 period. Data were taken from the documentary review of clinical histories and the records of the Department of Pathological Anatomy.

Results:

Regarding the clinical-pathological variables, men comprised 51,9 % of the sample, and the superficial extension in the histological subtype represented 44,1 % of the sample. About 64,6 % and 35,4 % of patients were diagnosed in stage IIIB and stage IIIC, respectively. The removal of the primary lesion was performed as the only treatment option in 35,1 % of the patients, and Interferon Alfa was used in 80 % of those who received immunotherapy. Up until the analysis of 67 patients, it was demonstrated that 84,8 % of them had improved while 83,5 % had died. The median progression-free survival was 1,0 years and the global survival was 1,10 years.

Conclusions:

The superficial subtype predominated in the group of patients studied. There was a discrete prevalence of males and stage IIIB. The most commonly indicated therapeutic procedure was the removal of the primary lesion. Both the median progression-free survival and the global one were low.

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