Acral lentiginous melanoma: a single‐centre retrospective review of four decades in East‐Central Europe

Background Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) occurs on the palms, soles and subungual surface and has poor prognosis. It is uncommon in the Caucasian population and has remained unreported in East‐Central Europe. Objectives Our aim was to collect data from East‐Central Europe by analysing the demographic and clinicopathologic features of patients with ALM and comparing data with the reports in literature. Methods We conducted a single‐centre, retrospective review between 1976 and 2016 at one of the largest melanoma referral centres in Hungary. Results We identified 176 patients with ALM (3.83%) from 4593 patients with melanoma (mean age: 66.2 years). The tumours were mainly located on the lower extremities (88.63%). The mean Breslow tumour thickness was 3.861 mm, 37.50% of the tumours were thicker than 4.00 mm, and 71.6% exhibited microscopic ulceration. Nearly one‐third of the patients underwent sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, and 60.3% of the biopsies were positive for metastasis. The positive SLN status was associated with significantly thick tumours and reduced survival. Patients with ALM had 5‐ and 10‐year overall survival rates of 60.5% and 41.6%, respectively. The mean delay in diagnosis was 18 months after the discovery of skin tumours. In multivariate analyses, age, tumour thickness and distant metastasis were independent risk factors for poor survival (P