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502 patients with clinical stage I cutaneous melanoma were reviewed to determine if performing a wide excision (4-5 cm) at the time when the diagnosis of melanoma is suspected, improves the survival. Patients were divided into two groups based on initial biopsy type and thickness category. Group 1, wide excision; group 2, total excision with narrow margins, incisional, or punch biopsies. There was no evidence that patients who had had a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure (wide excision) as the initial approach had a better survival than those who had had another form of biopsy before definitive surgery. We cannot recommend excision with wide margins as the initial biopsy procedure for a lesion suspected to be melanoma before histologic verification, since it does not increase survival for melanoma and may result in unnecessary aggressive surgery in the case of a misdiagnosed benign lesion.