Cutaneous melanoma diagnosis may impact total life expectancy
Source: Healio, January 2024
Key takeaways:
- Patients with stage II or III cutaneous melanoma lost a total of 2,209 and 1,902 life-years, respectively.
- Loss of life expectancy increased with higher substages within stage II and stage III disease.
Evaluating the loss of life expectancy among patients diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma may help establish a lifetime prognosis for patients, according to a study.
“Commonly reported measures (5-year disease-free survival/relative survival ratio, and overall survival) are useful for summarizing cancer prognosis,” Sofi Vikström, MD, of the department of oncology-pathology at the Karolinska Institute and the department of pathology and cancer diagnostics at Karolinska Solna University Hospital in Sweden, and colleagues wrote. “These do not capture the impact of a cancer diagnosis based on the entire remaining lifespan.”