Improvement of overall survival in patients with cutaneous melanoma at a tertiary care center in Germany from 2001 to 2020.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESSystemic treatment of cutaneous melanoma has changed since 2011, with clinical studies demonstrating improved outcomes. This analysis evaluated whether this improvement is evident in a real-world cohort, focusing on overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS).

PATIENTS AND METHODS10,270 patients with cutaneous melanoma were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier analyses for OS and RFS were used to compare 4,846 patients diagnosed in 2001-2010 with 5,424 patients diagnosed in 2011-2020.

RESULTSRegarding OS, differences were found for stages II-IV. 5-year OS was 78.2% and 85.2% in stage II, 56.5% and 70.7% in stage III, and 9.8% and 34.6% in stage IV. However, in stage I no difference was observed between the two periods, with 5-year OS of 95.9% and 96.2%. For RFS, no differences were observed in stages I-III, with 5-year RFS of 93.6% and 93.1% in stage I, 66.9% and 64.3% in stage II, and 38.2% and 42.5% in stage III.

CONCLUSIONSOS has improved in stages II-IV. The difference in stage II may be caused by the high number of patients progressing to stages III-IV. No differences were found for RFS in any stage. Since adjuvant therapies were approved starting in 2018, it is still too early to observe an effect.

Abstract from PubMed