Risk Factors for Lymphatic, Hematologic Metastasis of Melanoma
Source: Cancer Network, June 2019
Risk factors differ for early-stage melanoma metastasis via the lymphatic system and the bloodstream, according to a retrospective single-center cohort study of 1,177 patients published in JAMA Dermatology. Experts contacted by Cancer Network cautioned that additional work is needed to validate the findings.
“Follow-up and adjuvant treatment strategies may therefore need to be adapted to individual clinical, histopathologic and molecular characteristics,” concluded senior study author Eduardo Nagore, MD, PhD, of Valencia Catholic University Saint Vincent Martyr, in Spain.
Patients were diagnosed with stage I or II melanoma between 2015 and 2018. They underwent wide excision and also sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) when primary tumors were thicker than 0.75 mm at diagnosis or 0.75 mm or thinner with ulceration, vascular invasion, microscopic satellite loci, or at least 1 dermal-component mitosis, the authors reported.