Table 1.

Main variables included in the DMD

Category	Variable
Demographic data	Sex
	Age at diagnosis
	Familial melanoma
	Presence of dysplastic/atypical nevi
Clinical tumor data	Location of tumor (53 different locations)
	Largest diameter of tumor
	Specific clinical tumor characteristics
Primary diagnosis	Type and date of biopsy
Definitive surgery	Date of surgery
	Excision margin
	Method for closure of defect
	± Sentinel node biopsy
Pathology data on the primary tumor	Melanoma type
	Specific pathological tumor characteristics, including presence of ulceration and mitoses
	Tumor thickness in mm (two decimals) and Clark’s level
	± Satellites
	± Free resection margins
	Uncertain whether malignant or benign tumor
	Insufficient material for diagnosis
TNM classification
Data from lymphoscintigraphy	Date of examination, technique, information on tracer, result
Data from sentinel node biopsy	Date of surgery, ± use of patent blue, activity and stain in removed nodes, remaining activity in region
Recurrence	Were metastases detected at the time of primary diagnosis with a known primary tumor?
	Location of recurrence
Treatment of recurrence	Date and nature of operation
	Results of lymph node dissection (number of nodes with metastases and number of nodes removed)
	Referral to oncological treatment
Follow-up information	Date and status at the time of follow-up (± sign of recurrence)
	In case of recurrence, who/how suspected/detected
	Information about future plan for follow-up
Off-study information	Date of last visit
	Date and cause of death if known
	± Autopsy performed

Abbreviations: DMD, Danish Melanoma Database; TNM, tumor–node–metastasis.