Charles M. Balch, MD, FACS

All of us treating patients with melanoma must educate our patients about the importance of participating in clinical trials with these new agents so that we can systematically validate the benefits and risks of these agents in prospectively defined patient settings.

The article by Bisseck and colleagueshighlights an importantissue encountered increasinglyby physicians-melanoma in childrenand adolescents. The incidence andmortality of melanoma continues torise.[1] It is now the fifth most commoncancer in men and the seventhmost common cancer in women. Inour practice at the Johns HopkinsMelanoma Center, we have treated agrowing number of children and adolescentswith melanoma, includingmany with stage III disease identifiedby sentinel node technology, similarto that described by Bisseck andcolleagues.