In order to estimate the ability of physicians to make the clinical diagnosis of cutaneous malignant melanoma, a retrospective study was carried out. A comparison between clinical hypothesis and histopathological diagnosis was assessed. The rate of diagnostic accuracy was only 51%. There were problems in the differential diagnosis between malignant melanoma and other pigmented skin lesions. The majority of the cases of melanoma was recognized in advanced stages of tumor invasion. These data point out toward the need of improving the skills of the general physicians in the clinical recognition of the cutaneous melanoma and its precursor lesions.