Melanoma patients can have significant quality of life impact. Current literature has a paucity of empirically derived utility data on for different stages of melanoma despite the number of cost-effectiveness analyses performed for melanoma therapies. Investigators have extrapolated utility estimates from non-melanoma patient populations. The purpose of our study was to determine whether non-melanoma patients can serve as good proxies for melanoma patients when estimating utilities. We recruited consecutive patients from the Emory melanoma clinic and elicited utilities for their stage (I to IV) as well as their time from diagnosis (new (°Ü 1 year) vs. old (> 1 year)). We also recruited non-melanoma patients who were divided in 8 groups based on their personal experience with cancer. These patients were asked to imagine having newly diagnosed stage I and III melanoma. The elicited utilities were compared with those from real stage I and III melanoma patients. All patients were given a presentation of prognosis, treatment, and melanoma patients' reactions to appropriate health states. We measured utility with a computer-based time trade-off technique. We interviewed 142 melanoma patients and 101 non-melanoma patients. Patients with no exposure to any cancer overestimate the impact of a new stage III (mean utility ± SD: 0.384 ± 0.2 (estimate) vs. 0.534±0.291 (real), p<0.05). They may also overestimate the impact of a new stage I (0.734 ± 0.20 (estimate) vs.0.905 ± 0.129 (real), p=0.09)). Patients with a family history of non-melanoma skin cancer and no personal history of cancer may overestimate the impact of stage I (0.854 ±0.17 (estimate) vs. 0.905 (real), p=0.08)). Pts with family history of melanoma and no personal history of cancer may underestimate the impact of stage I (0.948±0.10 (estimate) vs. 0.905 (real), p=0.09). Patients with a personal history of either non-melanoma skin cancer or visceral cancers did not have significantly different utility estimates although low numbers of subjects could explain this finding. We conclude that patients with no exposure to any cancer experience are not good proxies for estimating melanoma QOL impact. Family history of skin cancer may not help inform these patients.