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.