title: Noncutaneous malignant melanoma: a prognostic model from a retrospective multicenter study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We performed multicenter study to define clinical characteristics of noncutaneous melanomas and to establish prognostic factors patients who received curative resection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Of the 141 patients who were diagnosed of non-cutaneous melanoma at 4 institutions in Korea between June 1992 and May 2005, 129 (91.5%) satisfied the selection criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 129 noncutaneous melanoma patients, 14 patients had ocular melanoma and 115 patients had mucosal melanoma. For mucosal melanoma, anorectum was the most common anatomic site (n=39, 30.2%) which was followed by nasal cavity (n=30, 23.3%), genitourinary (n=21, 16.3%), oral cavity (n=14, 10.9%), upper gastrointestinal tract (n=6, 4.7%) and maxillary sinus (n=5, 3.9%) in the order of frequency. With the median 64.5 (range 4.3-213.0) months follow-up, the median overall survival were 24.4 months (95% CI 13.2-35.5) for all patients, and 34.6 (95% CI 24.5-44.7) months for curatively resected mucosal melanoma patients. Adverse prognostic factors of survival for 87 curatively resected mucosal melanoma patients were complete resection (R1 resection margin), and age>50 years. For 14 ocular melanoma, Survival outcome was much better than mucosal melanoma with 73.3% of 2 year OS and 51.2 months of median OS (P=.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prognosis differed according to primary sites of noncutaneous melanoma. Based on our study, noncutaneous melanoma patients should be treated differently to improve survival outcome.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyo Song
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Eun Kyoung
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.forename: Sung Yong
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Keon Woo
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Do Hyoung
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Soon Il
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jung Han
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kyoung Mee
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Dae Ho
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jeeyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D005134:Eye Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009092:Mucous Membrane / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome