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Surgical Treatment of Primary Melanoma

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Melanoma in Clinical Practice

Abstract

The surgical management of primary cutaneous melanoma has been widely studied and remains an intensely debated subject within surgical oncology. Practice guidelines have evolved dramatically over the past 25 years based on the findings of both landmark clinical trials and more recent prospective randomized studies. Tissue diagnosis should be established via a full-thickness excisional or incisional biopsy. For biopsy-proven melanoma, wide local excision with 1–2 cm lateral margins (based on Breslow thickness of the primary tumor) is the standard approach, as this has been shown to be safe relative to historically used wider margins. The significance of the deep margin remains incompletely studied.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Brendin Beaulieu-Jones & Michael R. Cassidy

Authors
  1. Brendin Beaulieu-Jones
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  2. Michael R. Cassidy
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Correspondence to Michael R. Cassidy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Rhoda M. Alani

  2. Department of Dermatology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Debjani Sahni

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Beaulieu-Jones, B., Cassidy, M.R. (2021). Surgical Treatment of Primary Melanoma. In: Alani, R.M., Sahni, D. (eds) Melanoma in Clinical Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82639-0_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82639-0_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-82638-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-82639-0

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