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.
Publications
Many Stage 3 Melanoma Patients Won’t Benefit from High-dose Interferon Therapy
Final results of the Sunbelt Melanoma Trial indicate that most patients with stage III melanoma do not benefit from high-dose interferon treatment, largely because improved diagnostic techniques are now capable of detecting small amounts of lymph node activity in many melanomas — amounts too small to be considered high risk.
Few Want to Receive Skin Cancer Biopsy Results Face-to-Face
For patients with suspected malignant melanoma or squamous cell carcinoma, most patients are happy to receive biopsy results by letter or telephone, according to a research letter published online Feb. 8 in the British Journal of Dermatology.
Nivolumab’s Growing Role in the Melanoma Treatment Paradigm –
In early February, the FDA granted expanded approval to nivolumab (Opdivo) as both a single agent, as well as in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy), for patients with melanoma exhibiting BRAF V600 mutations. This expansion puts nivolumab in the frontline for all patients with advanced melanoma, which Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, says will be beneficial for patients.