Mortality due to cutaneous melanoma in south region of Brazil: a spatial approach*

BACKGROUND Cutaneous melanoma is a skin cancer with low incidence but high mortality rates. The South region of Brazil has the highest death rates by melanoma per 100,000 inhabitants of the country. Little is known about the spatial distribution of this malignancy in southern Brazil. OBJECTIVES Identify the spatial patterns of deaths from cutaneous melanoma in South region of Brazil, using geoprocessing tools. METHODS This is an ecological and exploratory study of death information by cutaneous melanoma obtained from portal Datasus, for Brazil's southern region, from January 2008 to December 2012. Deaths were separated by gender and rates per 100,000 inhabitants were calculated and used to compile thematic maps, Moran maps and Kernel maps, using TerraView software. It was adopted an alpha = 5%. RESULTS There were data on 2378 deaths from cutaneous melanoma in the study period. High rates were identified in the northern and littoral regions of Rio Grande do Sul; the northeast of Santa Catarina; and west of Paraná - for the total population, with minor differences detected and indicated regarding gender. The global Moran index presented p-values of 0.03, 0.04 and 0.03, respectively, for male, female and overall deaths. All the micro-regions that showed high priority for intervention were detected in the Rio Grande do Sul. CONCLUSION Spatial clusters of micro-regions with high death rates from cutaneous melanoma in South region of Brazil were identified, serving as an important tool for health managers.