Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Biography Historical Article
America's greatest medical discovery: 150 years later, who gets the credit?
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Since the inception of the Charity Hospital Tumor Registry in 1948, 80 cases of malignant melanoma in blacks were treated at the Tulane University School of Medicine, Department of Surgery. Among black people, melanoma occurs on acral dermal sites. The histologic type is primarily acrallentiginous melanoma (ALM), found on acral, volar-subungual skin and junctional mucocutaneous sites. ⋯ Black females have a higher rate of extracutaneous melanoma than black men or white men and women, which accounts for a distinct negative impact on survival rates among black women with melanoma. In addition, the worst prognosis of melanoma among black women is not entirely related to delays in diagnosis, as has been suggested, but to their higher rates of extracutaneous melanoma.