Table 2.

Characteristics of older white men and women with invasive cutaneous melanoma in the total population and across stage at diagnosis categories (regional and distant), 1991–1999

		Stage at diagnosis
Characteristic	Total (n=1,239)	Regional (n=1,032)	Distant (n=207)	p-valueb
	%	%	%
Chemotherapy				0.0004
Yes	22.1	20.3	31.4
No	77.9	79.7	68.6
Census tract poverty level % a				0.54
<3.87% (wealthier)	25.0	25.5	22.7
3.87% to 6.65%	25.0	25.4	23.2
6.66% to 11.00%	24.9	24.8	25.6
>11.00% (poorer)	25.1	24.3	28.5
Age				0.69
66–74 yr	36.5	36.2	37.7
≥ 75 yr	63.5	63.8	62.3
Gender				0.90
Male	56.9	57.0	56.5
Female	43.1	43.0	43.5
Marital status				0.19
Married	53.0	52.8	54.1
Unmarried/Unknown	47.0	47.2	45.9
Comorbidity				0.55
0–1	91.0	89.9	92.3
≥ 2	9.0	10.1	7.7
Histology				<.0001
Superficial spreading	15.1	17.3	3.9
Nodular	25.1	28.9	6.3
Lentigo maligna	3.2	3.6	1.4
Other	56.6 c	50.2 d	88.4 e
Body site				<.0001
Trunk	16.8	18.3	9.2
Face	26.8	29.5	13.5
Upper limb	21.2	23.3	10.6
Lower limb	20.3	23.2	6.3
Not specified	14.9	5.7	60.4
Thickness of tumor (mm)				<.0001
≤ 2	30.5	33.0	17.9
> 2	45.8	52.9	10.6
Unknown/not specified	23.7	14.1	71.5
Ulceration				<.0001
Present	41.1	49.2	0.5
Absent/not specified	58.9	50.8	99.5
Positive nodes				0.07
≥ 1	15.2	16.0	11.1
0 or not reported	84.8	84.0	88.9

^aQuartiles for average percentage from 1990 & 2000 US Census data

^bDifferences for each characteristic across the two categories of stage at diagnosis (regional and distant) were tested and calculated using the Pearson’s Chi-square test.

Other histology category included acral lentiginous

^c2.6%

^d3.0%

^e0.5%