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Higher mortality risk related to thicker single primary melanomas vs. thicker multiple primary melanomas
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Fatality risk was more than four times greater for patients with thicker single primary melanomas compared with patients exhibiting thicker multiple primary melanomas, according to study results published today.
Researchers studied 2,372 patients with single primary melanomas (SPMs) and 1,206 with multiple primary melanomas (MPMs) using survival analysis with median follow-up of 7.6 years. Incident melanoma cases from population-based cancer registries in Australia, Canada, Italy and the United States were used.
Hazard ratios for fatalities related to melanoma associated with clinical and pathological characteristics of SPM, MPM were main outcomes and measures.
Five hundred sixty-three deaths occurred, including 255 related to melanoma (n=152, SPM; n=103, MPM). Melanoma thickness, including those of more than 4 mm (HR=7.68; 95% CI, 4.46-13.23), was the primary factor of fatality Adjusting for ulceration, mitoses and scalp location, all independent predictors, researchers observed similar incidence of fatality between patients with MPM (HR=1.24; 95% CI, 0.91-1.69) compared with SPM. There was greater fatality risk, however, among patients with SPM of more than 4 mm (HR=13.56; 95% CI, 6.47-28.4) than for patients with comparable sized MPM (HR=2.93; 95% CI; 1.17-7.3).
“We found no strong evidence of a difference in survival between SPM and MPM patients despite the evidence of other researchers and suggestions that MPM may have a less aggressive biology than SPM,” the researchers concluded. “However, to our knowledge, we report for the first time a greater increase in the risk of death with increasing tumor thickness for SPM than for MPM. This main feature indicated a possible difference between outcomes in patients with single vs. multiple melanomas.”
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