Melanoma-Specific Survival Significantly Higher With Wider Excision Margins

Source: ASCO Post, February 2016

Among patients with high-risk, primary cutaneous melanomas, the risk of death from melanoma at a median follow-up of 8.8 years was significantly higher among those randomized to surgery with a 1-cm excision margin than among those randomized to surgery with a 3-cm excision margin. Although overall mortality was also higher in patients with a 1-cm excision margin, that difference was not statistically significant.

Reporting the results in The Lancet Oncology, Andrew J. Hayes, PhD, of The Royal Marsden Hospital National Health Foundation Trust, London, and colleagues, noted: “Our study has re-emphasised that the choice of surgical margins taken around a cutaneous melanoma is important and, to our knowledge, for the first time provides evidence to suggest that a narrower excision margin used for thick primary tumors affects melanoma-specific survival. This finding might be pertinent for specific melanomas for which narrow (1-cm) margins are presently advised—ie, melanomas between 1 mm and 2 mm in thickness with other adverse prognostic features (ulceration or high mitotic rate, or both).”