Biomedicines (Aug 2021)

Serum Selenium Level and 10-Year Survival after Melanoma

  • Emilia Rogoża-Janiszewska,
  • Karolina Malińska,
  • Piotr Baszuk,
  • Wojciech Marciniak,
  • Róża Derkacz,
  • Marcin Lener,
  • Anna Jakubowska,
  • Cezary Cybulski,
  • Tomasz Huzarski,
  • Bartłomiej Masojć,
  • Jacek Gronwald,
  • Helena Rudnicka,
  • Andrzej Kram,
  • Magdalena Kiedrowicz,
  • Magdalena Boer,
  • Tadeusz Dębniak,
  • Jan Lubiński

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9080991
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 8
p. 991

Abstract

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Melanoma is one of the most aggressive human malignancies. The determination of prognostic biomarkers is important for the early detection of recurrence and for the enrollment of the patients into different treatment regimens. Herein, we report the 10-year survival of 375 melanoma patients depending on their serum selenium levels. The study group was followed up from the date of melanoma diagnosis until death or 2020. Patients were assigned to one of four categories, in accordance with the increasing selenium level (I–IV quartiles). The subgroup with low selenium levels had a significant lower survival rate in relation to patients with high selenium levels, HR = 8.42; p = 0.005 and HR = 5.83; p = 0.02, for uni- and multivariable models, respectively. In the univariable analysis, we also confirmed the association between Breslow thickness, Clark classification and age at melanoma prognosis. In conclusion, a low serum selenium level was associated with an increased mortality rate in the 10 years following melanoma diagnosis. Future studies in other geographic regions with low soil selenium levels should be conducted to confirm our findings.

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