Purpose

This study has attempted to analyze the impact of where one lives related to the incidence of multiple primary cancer among patients with uveal melanoma.

Material and methods

The group that was studied consisted of 240 patients. They were separated from other patients who had been diagnosed and treated with uveal melanoma at the Department of Ophthalmology and Ocular Oncology at Jagiellonian University Medical College in the period between January 1998 to December 2007. Ninety seven patients, diagnosed with another primary cancer, was defined as a test group. The remaining 143 patients constituted the control group.

Results

In the test group individuals were mostly residents of large cities, most often with population of more than 500 thousand inhabitants. The control group represented residents of small towns, each having less than 10000 persons population.

Conclusions

The findings of this study are pointing to the dependence of the detectability of multiple primary cancer among patients with uveal melanoma on the availability of modern diagnostic methods.