Urethral involvement is associated with higher mortality and local recurrence in vulvar melanoma: A single institutional experience

Source: MDLinx, July 2020

Given a notoriously poor local control in vulvar malignant melanoma (VMM) with recurrence rates of 30-50% vs nearly 3% in cutaneous melanomas, researchers analyzed clinicopathologic characteristics of women suffering from VMM (n=37), following reviewing three decades of clinical follow up data in their institutional databases. Better 5 year survival rates were observed in younger patients at diagnosis (23-64 yo), those with thin melanomas (less than or equal to 1mm) and those with Clark’s level II or III tumors, vs older patients (65-83 yo), and those having thick melanomas (greater than 1mm) and those having Clark’s level IV or V, respectively, according to exact log-rank test. Urethral involvement by malignant melanoma was identified in 9 patients (24%). Shorter median time to death as well as worse 5-year survival rates were reported in patients with urethral involvement.

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