Analysis of prognosis and disease progression after local recurrence of melanoma.
BACKGROUND
Local recurrence of melanoma is associated with a grave prognosis. However, the characteristics and the mode of disease progression for patients with local recurrence have not been adequately addressed in the literature.


METHODS
A retrospective analysis of patients treated at a single institution revealed a subset of patients (n = 648) with local recurrence of melanoma as a first event. Patient characteristics, histologic determinants, and disease free interval were variables used to identify prognostic factors.


RESULTS
In this group of patients, male gender (P = 0. 0163), increasing age (P = 0.0001), head and neck primaries (P = 0. 0001), thicker Breslow depths (P = 0.0022), deeper Clark levels (P = 0.0010), and ulceration of the primary tumor (P = 0.0348) suggested a shorter time until local recurrence. Breslow depth (P = 0.0004), Clark level (P = 0.0043), and ulceration (P = 0.0001) still factored into the survival prognosis after recurrence. Truncal primaries (P = 0.0005) and shorter disease free intervals (P = 0.0098) were also associated with poorer outcomes after recurrence. Of the 648 patients, 124 showed no progression, 196 developed another local recurrence, 178 developed in-transit/lymph node metastases, and 150 had systemic recurrences. Survival was only 33.6% for patients with further metastases, compared with 77.4% for patients with no progression of disease after a median follow-up of 38.9 months.


CONCLUSIONS
There was a 48.5% mortality rate at 5 years of follow-up after local recurrence. Long term survival (> 10 years) was estimated to be 34.9%. The patterns of failure after local recurrence suggest that patients may benefit from aggressive locoregional therapy.
Dong
X D
XD
Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Tyler
D
D
Johnson
J L
JL
DeMatos
P
P
Seigler
H F
HF
D000368:Aged; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D015996:Survival Rate