What factors affect survival in mucosal melanoma?

The authors assessed which factors affect the outcome of mucosal melanoma.

Mucosal melanoma is a very rare cancer accounting for roughly 1% of all melanomas. It occurs in particular tissues in the body (mucosal tissue), lining the head and neck, nostrils, oral cavity, vagina, anus, gastrointestinal tract and other areas.

Mucosal melanoma is distinct from other types of skin cancer and requires different treatment approaches and classification system. Due to the lack of adequate data, factors that predict the outcome of mucosal melanoma are not well established. 

The authors aimed to evaluate 10-year survival data of patients with melanoma.

Data from 116 patients were included in this analysis. The sites of mucosal melanoma, tumor thickness (how deep a melanoma reaches into the skin layer), and survival rates over 10-year period were examined.

The sites of the mucosal melanoma were vulva (the external part of female genital organs, 35.3%), vagina (5.2%), penis (6.9%), nasal/oral cavity (31.0%), eyelid (4.3%) and the gastrointestinal tract (17.2%). The average tumor thickness was 2.9 mm. Patients survived for an average of 80.9 months. 71.7% patients were still alive after 2 years, 55.8% patients were still alive after 5 years and 38.3% patients were still alive after 10 years.

Survival rates of patients over 10 years were analyzed according to the tumor stages (T) of melanoma. The T stage number indicated the size and thickness of the tumor (the higher the number, the bigger and thicker the tumor). 100% of patients with stage T₁ tumors were still alive after 10 years. 77.9% of patients with stage T₂ tumors, 66.3% patients with stage T3 tumors and 10.6% patients with stage T₄ tumors were still alive after 10 years.

The 10-year survival was highest for patients with melanoma of the vulva (64.5%) compared to the rest (22.3%).

The authors concluded that the survival of mucosal melanoma patients depended upon the tumor stage of melanoma. They also found out that survival was significantly better for patients with melanoma of the vulva compared to the other types.