Barry D. Goldman, MD 122 Fulton St, Third Floor New York, NY 10038 1. Richard MA, Grob JJ, Avril MA, et al. In reply We read with great interest the comments of Goldman et al about the differences between genders in melanoma detection. A detailed description of the characteristics of patients with long delays before detection and high tumor thickness has been submitted for publication. Among patients with coincidentally diagnosed melanoma, it can be assumed that there is an excess of individuals with a poor ability to detect their melanoma compared with patients with self-detected tumors.
Women thus seem to recognize melanoma better than men.
We fully agree that these results suggest that men must be targeted specifically in education programs. These programs should focus on the specific factors in men that account for their poorer ability to detect melanoma. 13009 Marseille, France 1. Richard MA, Grob JJ, Avril MF, et al. All rights reserved.