Clinical and Pathological Melanoma Differences in Young and Old People

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Melanoma is often misdiagnosed in older people. Some clinical and histopathological features seem to differ according to age. OBJECTIVES: This case series aimed to identify clinicopathological differences of melanoma between older and younger patients. METHODS: We identified all incident melanomas diagnosed in a dermatology outpatients unit from January/2007 to December/2014. Data were collected from medical records and pathology registries. RESULTS: We included 62 patients (mean age of 62.1 ± 4.2 years), with a median Breslow thickness of 4 mm (1.2 − 6.5). While men were majority in the older group, women prevailed between younger counterparts (p = 0.02). Multivariate analysis identified history of chronic sun exposure, multiple naevi, skin phototypes 1 and 2, in situ melanoma and the presence of another skin tumour to be correlated with age. In a logistic regression model, the presence of chronic sun exposure and nodular subtype were found to influence age. Major limitations include those inherent to cross -sectional design, including selection and information biases, the lack of confounding factors analysis (including survival and prognosis), and the sample size. CONCLUSIONS: On this case series, melanoma seems to be more frequent in older men and in elders with chronic sun exposure; age was found to be significantly related to nodular subtype and chronic sun exposure.

Keywords

• melanoma
• aged
• epidemiology