To the Editor.—
The incidence of malignant melanoma has increased in all countries during the last few years. This trend first became recognizable in areas with high sun impact and a primarily white population (like Queensland, Australia, and the southern states of the United States).1 Similar developments could be observed in Europe, too.2 Hence, such tendencies should also be assumed for West Germany, although true incidence data were not available. Previous figures were either based on the rate of mortality, or the incidence was calculated by the percentage of overall survival and mortality. These calculations, however, yielded results that are close to our incidence rates.3,4The now published incidence rates for malignant melanoma are based on the data of a population of 1 000 000, which belong to the closer catchment area of our clinic. We assume that almost all patients with malignant melanoma out of a