Identifying Persons at Highest Risk of Melanoma Using Self-Assessed Risk Factors.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a self-assessed melanoma risk score to identify high-risk persons for screening METHODS: We used data from a 1997 melanoma case-control study from Washington State, USA, where 386 cases with invasive cutaneous melanoma and 727 controls were interviewed by telephone. A logistic regression prediction model was developed on 75% of the data and validated in the remaining 25% by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), a measure of predictive accuracy from 0.5-1 (higher scores indicating better prediction).

The global epidemiology of HIV/AIDS.

HIV infected nearly 5 million and killed more than 3 million people in 2005. Whereas traditional epidemics have been limited to high-risk populations, in many regions, it has generalized to the at-large population, with heterosexual sex being the predominant source of transmission. The virus has hit sub-Saharan Africa the hardest, although major epidemics are now transpiring in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean.

Relationship of uveal and cutaneous malignant melanoma in persons with multiple primary tumors.

Uveal and cutaneous melanomas differ in tumor biology, immunophenotypes and the demographic correlates of their occurrence. As a means to examine the possibility of some shared etiologic factors, we wished to learn if the 2 cancers occurred in the same individual more often than would be expected by chance. Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program from 1973-1998 were utilized for this purpose.