Secondary melanoma risk highest in Black patients
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Key takeaways:
- White patients have the highest risk for primary melanoma; however, second primary melanoma risk was highest in Black patients.
- These results highlight the importance of follow-up regardless of race.
While Black patients are less likely to develop first melanoma than white patients, this group has a higher relative rate of secondary melanoma diagnosis, according to a study.
“Patients with melanoma have a nearly nine-fold increased risk of subsequent primary melanoma vs. the general population. However, the extent to which risk of a second primary melanoma varies across racial and ethnic groups is less certain,” Shoshana Zhang, BS, of the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, and colleagues wrote.
The researchers identified patients with a first primary cutaneous melanoma diagnosis from 17 Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results registries who then had a second primary cutaneous melanoma diagnosis within 2 months of the first.
Absolute incidence of first melanoma was 47.67 per 100,000 people, whereas absolute incidence of second melanoma was 1,457.4 per 100,000 person-years in white patients. For American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander and Black patients, first melanoma incidence per 100,000 people was 10.89, 7.1, 1.94 and 1.35, respectively.
The incidence of second primary melanoma per 100,000 person-years was 1,276.68 in American Indian or Alaskan Native patients, 773.6 in Asian or Pacific Islander patients, 959.4 in Hispanic patients and 827.04 in Black patients.
“Incidence of second melanomas happen at different rates depending on racial or ethnic group,” Adewole S. Adamson, MD, MPP, assistant professor of dermatology at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin and one of the study’s investigators, told Healio. “Regardless of race, if a patient is diagnosed with melanoma, they should continue to have follow-up because they are at increased risk of developing a second melanoma.”
While the absolute number of second primary melanomas occurred in white patients, Black patients maintained the highest relative risk.
The standard incidence ratio relative risk for second melanoma was 264.39 in Black patients, 196.68 in Asian or Pacific Islander patients, 62.71 in Hispanic patients, 48.47 in American Indian or Alaska Native patients and 11.63 in white patients.
The study was accompanied by an editor’s note authored by Mya L. Roberson, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Ivo Abraham, PhD, of the Center for Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomic Research at R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy at the University of Arizona
“These findings highlight the special care that must be taken when interpreting analyses of rare events, such as second primary melanomas, in racially and ethnically minoritized populations,” Roberson and Abraham wrote.
Reference:
For more information:
Adewole S. Adamson, MD, MPP, can be reached at Adewole.Adamson@austin.utexas.edu.
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