Background
The incidence of malignant melanoma has continually increased during the past few
decades, however, certain reports suggest a recent change in trends. The aim of our
study was to examine the epidemiology of melanoma in Hungary.
Methods
This nationwide, retrospective, longitudinal study included melanoma patients diagnosed
between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2019 using the databases of the National Health
Insurance Fund (NHIF) and Central Statistical Office (CSO) of Hungary. Age-standardized
incidence and cause-specific mortality rates were calculated.
Results
We identified 2,426 and 2,414 new melanoma cases in 2011 and in 2019. Age-standardized
incidence rates were higher in males and varied between 28.28 and 34.57/100,000 person-years
(PYs), and between 22.63 and 26.72/100,000 PYs in females. We found 16.14 and 18.82%
increases in male and female incidence rates from 2011 to 2015 (p=0.067 and p<0.001,
respectively), and 12.77 and 11.35% decreases from 2015 to 2019 (p=0.062 and p=0.004,
respectively). The change of incidence trends (2011-2015 vs. 2015-2019) was significant
in females (p=0.002) and in the total melanoma population (p=0.011), but not in the
male population (p=0.063). A 16.55% (95% CI: -27.07 to -4.59; p=0.013) decrease in
mortality rates was found in the overall melanoma population.
Conclusions
We observed a significant trend change in melanoma incidence in the female and total
melanoma population, and a significant decrease in mortality in the total melanoma
population. These changes may be attributed to intensive melanoma awareness campaigns
as well as to the increase in screening and access to modern therapies.
