Printed m UJS-A. MELANOMAS OF EYE: STABILITY OF RATES1

The incidence and mortality rates for malignant melanomas of the eye are changing very little in populations in Europe, North America, Australasia and Japan. This Is in contrast to the rapid rise of these rates for malignant melanoma of skin in these populations. Caucasold race; longitudinal studies; melanoma; eye neoplasms About 10 per cent of malignant mel-anomas occur in the eye. For both the skin (1) and the eye melanomas (2) the incidence is higher in white than in black populations. However, the eye mela-nomas do not show the marked latitude gradient in the United States found for the skin melanomas (3). The incidence and mortality of the skin melanomas are rising rapidly (4-10), but there is no established explanation for this (11, 12). In contrast, the rates for eye mel-anoma actually declined from the Secon