JCO Global Oncology (Nov 2020)

Demographic, Clinical, and Pathologic Features of Patients With Cutaneous Melanoma: Final Analysis of the Brazilian Melanoma Group Database

  • Alberto Julius Alves Wainstein,
  • João Pedreira Duprat Neto,
  • Mauro Yoshiaki Enokihara,
  • Eduard René Brechtbühl,
  • Felice Riccardi,
  • Gilles Landman,
  • Andreia Cristina de Melo,
  • Vinicius de Lima Vazquez,
  • Rodrigo Ramella Munhoz,
  • Ivan Dunshee De Abranches Oliveira Santos Filho,
  • Eduardo Bertolli,
  • Ana Paula Drummond-Lage,
  • Bianca Costa Soares de Sá,
  • Luciane Botelho,
  • Jose Higino Steck,
  • Francisco Aparecido Belfort,
  • Marcus Maia,
  • Renato Marchiori Bakos,
  • Elimar Elias Gomes,
  • Rafael Schmerling,
  • Flavio Cavarsan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1200/JGO.20.00005
Journal volume & issue
no. 6
pp. 575 – 582

Abstract

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PURPOSE National epidemiologic data on melanoma are scarce in Brazil. The current work presents final demographic, clinical, and pathologic results from the Brazilian Melanoma Group database to detail how patients with melanoma present at diagnosis. METHODS The online database includes patients diagnosed between 1982 and 2015 and evaluated at their centers of origin between 2001 and 2016. The primary objective was to describe the demographic, clinical, and pathologic characteristics of the patients, and secondary objectives were to investigate the association between clinical and pathologic variables of interest. RESULTS A total of 1,596 patients were included. Median age was 52 years, 57% were women, and the majority were identified as white. Invasive melanoma was diagnosed in 1,297 patients, mostly localized, whereas 299 (19%) had in situ disease (TisN0M0). Only 165 patients had initial lymph node involvement. Fitzpatrick skin types I or II were slightly more frequent with in situ melanoma (73%) than with invasive disease (67%; P = .054). The median Breslow thickness was 0.95 mm, Clark levels 2 and 3 comprised nearly 70% of cases, and ulceration was present in 18% of patients. The mitotic rate was significantly associated with the presence of ulceration and both vascular and perineural invasion but not with margin positivity, whereas histologic regression was associated with both intratumoral and peritumoral inflammatory infiltrates. CONCLUSION Despite the limitations of an observational, registry-based study, the current results provide a general profile of patients with cutaneous melanoma in Brazil at the time of diagnosis.