Chinese Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Melanoma (2015 Edition)

Malignant melanoma is one of the most common malignancies. Its incidence grows rapidly at an annual rate of 3−5%. Although the incidence of melanoma remains low in China, it has increased rapidly, with approximately 20,000 new cases reported each year. The mortality of melanoma also has been increasing rapidly; in contrast, although the incidence of melanoma is also increasing in western countries, its mortality basically remains unchanged and does not rise along with the escalation in prevalence. Thus, there is still a wide gap between China and Western countries in the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma. Melanoma has become one of the diseases that pose a major threat to health of Chinese people. However, compared with other common malignant tumors, there is still a far way to go to achieve the standardized diagnosis and treatment of melanoma. In May 2007, the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) formally established the CSCO Melanoma Panel with an attempt to promote the development of clinical oncology, facilitate the multidisciplinary standardized treatment for melanoma, advocate the active learning and application of currently available scientific evidences at home and abroad, and explore the development of Chinese guidelines on the clinical practices on melanoma. After consultations with multidisciplinary experts, the first edition of the Chinese Consensus on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Melanoma was released in 2008; in 2009, 2011, and 2013, three revisions of this consensus document were published after many multidisciplinary seminars. The past 5 years have witnessed several breakthroughs in the clinical treatment of melanoma. Melanoma has become one of the malignant tumors whose treatment patterns have changed rapidly. To adapt to the fast advances in melanoma treatment and make the clinical management of melanoma in China more standardized and internationalized, the 2015 edition of the Chinese Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Melanoma was finalized after repeated and wide consultations with multidisciplinary experts and updated and added with much new information, with an attempt to provide the up-todated and reliable instructions on clinical practices based recent scientific evidences.