British Journal of Dermatology
British Journal of Dermatology
5 years ago

Prognostic factors and survival in acral lentiginous melanoma

L. Shen, E. Jorgenson, M.M. Sokil, I. Yeh, M.M. Asgari
Background Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is a rare melanoma subtype that disproportionately afflicts people of colour. ALMs have a worse prognosis than other melanoma subtypes; this has been attributed to aggressive biological behaviour, more advanced stage at presentation and possible disparities in access to health care. Objectives To examine, using comprehensive patient data and long-term follow-up information in a well-characterized cohort, how patient, tumour and clinical management variables impact overall and melanoma-specific survival. Methods We characterized a consecutive cohort of 123 ALMs diagnosed from 1987 to 2013 and analysed predictors of overall and melanoma-specific survival for their association with survival. Results Univariate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals using Cox regression models showed that increased Breslow depth, presence of ulceration, receipt of radiation, chemo- and vaccine therapy were associated with worse melanoma-specific survival. Notably, nonwhite race/ethnicity was not associated with worse overall or melanoma-specific survival. Multivariate modelling adjusting for patient, tumour and management variables revealed Breslow depth > 2 mm and disease extent as significantly associated with poor melanoma-specific survival. Conclusions Melanoma-specific mortality among patients with ALM is associated with increased tumour thickness and more advanced stage at presentation, but not with race/ethnicity. Advanced tumour features at presentation and access to care may account for less favourable survival outcomes reported among nonwhite patients.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1111/bjd.15600

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.