Melanoma Treatment at Stage II Depends on Histologic Subtype
Source: Dermatology Times, August 2023
Researchers found significant difference in survival rates between lentigo maligna melanoma, nodular malignant melanoma, and superficial spreading melanoma.
In an analysis of patients with head and neck melanoma, investigators found that patients with stage II lentigo maligna melanoma (LMM) had a significantly higher melanoma-specific survival (MSS) rate than those with nodular malignant melanoma (NM) or superficial spreading melanoma (SSM).1 Using data from the Central Registry of Malignant Melanoma at the Department of Dermatology, Tübingen, Germany, of patients with LMM, NM, or SSM with primary diagnosis between 01/01/2000 to 12/31/2019, researchers obtained a cohort of 1506 patients.
For comparison, SSM and NM were combined into 1 cohort. The SSM/NM (n=604) and LMM (n=902) cohorts were compared in total and at initial diagnosis. Patients of the LMM group were significantly older (median age 71 years) than those in the SSM/NM group (median age 61 years). At initial diagnosis, more than half the patients in the LMM cohort were at stage IA compared to less than 30% of the SSM/NM cohort, indicating that the LMM group was diagnosed at an earlier stage.