title: Thin melanoma and late recurrences: it is never too thin and never too late.
abstract: In the absence of risk factors, thin melanomas (TM) present a long-term survival; however, recurrences may occur. We describe the predictive clinicopathological features of patients with metastatic TM. Kaplan-Meier product was performed for the survival analysis, while Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the effect of the clinicopathological features on disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Median DFS of the entire cohort was 26 months and three patients developed late metastases. Nine patients developed extra-nodal metastases as first recurrence, while cases of positive sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) were not found. DFS and OS varied according to the clinicopathological features, but only ulceration remained the main statistical significance value. According to our results, a hypothetical use of SLNB in TM without other risk factors is not currently feasible. No consensus exists as to which patients with TM are at risk for metastases or late recurrences.
authors.affiliation: Clinica Dermatologica, La Sapienza University of Rome, Viale del Policlinico 15, 00186, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio Giovanni
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Richetta
authors.forename: Ugo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bottoni
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Paolino
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Clerico
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cantisani
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ambrifi
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Corsetti
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Calvieri
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D016896:Treatment Outcome