EGIONAL EVALUATION OF MALIGNANT TU-
R mors has clinical advantages in the recognition of their biological behavior. This is especially true if one compares the behavior of the tumor in two anatomically similar but functionally different organs, such as the hands and feet. This is the reason for choosing the subject for study. Hands mean from the wrist toward the fingers and foot means from the ankle toward the toes. In literature, "Melanoma" is always used with the adjective "Malignant"; however, in this paper I am using the word "Melanoma"
or "Malignant melanoma" with equal meaning. There is only one exception in this definition and that is "Juvenile melanoma." This latter tumor is benign but has some histologic similarity to malignant melanoma.
Tumors of the hands and feet, especially malignant tumors, are very rare and their incidence, compared to those of other regions of the body is considerably lower.
In 11,212 patients admitted to Rosewell Park Hospital'a for malignant tumors all over the body, 1.1% of those tumors were in the hands and 0.33% in the feet. This is interesting since the skin surface of these two organs is 10% of the body surface. There are contrasting reports in From the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, Clinical Unit of Memorial Sloan-