Introduction
Melanoma is a rare disease in non-Caucasians. In men, incidence of
melanoma in Caucasians is 33 per 100,000 compared to 1.2 and 0.9 in
African Americans (AA) and Asians, respectively.1,2The US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry,
containing data from 1988-2011 demonstrated that Acral lentiginous
melanoma (ALM) was overwhelmingly the most common subtype of melanoma in
AA: 18.0% of the cases were ALM compared to 0.91% in Caucasians.
55.9% of the cases in African Americans were classified as Melanoma not
otherwise specified (NOS). The second and third most common subtypes in
AA were superficial spreading (SSM) and nodular melanoma (NM),
comprising 15.6% and 7.9% of the cases during the 23-year-period,
respectively. In the Japanese population, however, melanoma is twice as
high compared to other Asian races.2,4
This case of nodular melanoma in an African American-Japanese male was
selected due the rare occurrence of nodular melanoma in patients with
skin of color (SOC). The relationship between epidemiology and risk
factors for melanoma in non-Caucasian populations is not well
investigated. Furthermore, nodular melanoma is largely unstudied in SOC.