Older Men More Likely to Develop Multiple Primary Melanomas

Source: Cancer Network, November 2015

Older men are more likely to be diagnosed with multiple primary melanomas and have worse disease–specific survival than men with a single primary melanoma, according to a new study presented at the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) 2015 International Congress, held November 18–21 in San Francisco.

Multiple primary cutaneous melanomas are diagnosed in a proportion of patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma. The impact on disease–specific survival is not well characterized, noted Hanna Eriksson, MD, PhD, of the department of oncology-pathology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Eriksson and colleagues aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and survival in multiple primary melanoma patients compared to single primary melanoma patients, including possible gender differences.

They identified 27,235 patients diagnosed with an invasive, primary cutaneous malignant melanoma in Sweden between 1990 and 2007. Some 700 patients developed two or more cutaneous malignant melanomas during the study period and were defined as multiple primary melanoma patients.