Advanced Melanoma at Diagnosis Associated With Several Patient-Specific Factors
Source: Dermatology Times, April 2025
Patients with certain sociodemographic factors are significantly more likely to present with advanced-stage melanoma at diagnosis, including those who live farther from treatment centers, those with Medicaid or without insurance, and those from lower-income households, among other factors. These study findings were published in SKIN.
A retrospective cohort study aimed to uncover the incidence of advanced melanoma as well as demographic and socioeconomic factors influencing advanced melanoma presentation in the United States. Researchers analyzed data from 477,914 patients with any stage of melanoma from 2004 to 2015. They utilized the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to identify and examine these patients, of whom 13.2% (n=63,291) were diagnosed with advanced melanoma stages III and IV.
Patients’ clinical and demographic characteristics — including income, insurance coverage, race/ethnicity, distance to medical facilities, geographic location, age at diagnosis, gender, comorbidities, and primary melanoma site — were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression to pinpoint factors significantly associated with advanced melanoma presentation.