Clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with de novo versus nevus-associated melanoma in Taiwan

Abstract

Studies surveying melanomas associated with melanocytic nevi in Asia are rare. In this study, we examined whether nevus-associated melanomas differ from de novo melanomas in terms of their associations with clinical factors, histologic characteristics, and patient survival in Taiwan. Using data on cancer cases obtained from the Department of Pathology archives and the Cancer Registry of National Taiwan University Hospital, we conducted a retrospective analysis of 103 consecutive melanoma patients who were diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 and received follow-up through November 2016. Approximately 17.5% of the melanomas in question were associated with a nevus. In patients under 65 years of age, non-acral lentiginous melanomas were significantly associated with a higher percentage of nevus-associated melanomas. The superficial spreading subtype, younger patient age, thinner tumor, intermittent solar exposure, and early stage were significant predictors of a melanoma being histologically associated with a nevus. The appearance of a nevus associated with a melanoma predicted better recurrence-free survival compared with de novo melanomas. Although acral lentiginous melanomas (70.9%) constituted the most common histologic subtype, only 9.6% of the acral lentiginous melanomas were associated with a nevus. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference between the nevus-associated and de novo acral lentiginous melanomas with regard to clinicopathological factors and survival. In conclusion, nevus-associated melanomas were uncommon among acral lentiginous melanomas. Relatedly, because over half of all melanomas in Asians are acral lentiginous melanomas, Asians are less likely than Caucasians to have nevus-associated melanomas.

Melanoma: clinical-pathological and molecular analysis in patients of Ibague city, Colombia

“…The results of this study show that the most frequent histological subtype corresponds to lentiginous acral melanoma (41.8 %), congruent with that reported by the INC for Colombia 16 , De Vries et al 24 in 2017 for Cali and Sheen et al in 2017 for Asian populations 28 . In contrast, in Caucasian populations there seems to be higher frequency of the superficial spreading melanoma 17 subtype (63.2 %), followed by the nodular subtype (50.4 %) 16,24,28,29 . Differences between frequencies of melanoma subtypes in Colombia, with respect to Caucasian populations, can be attributed to the ethnic origin of each population and miscegenation.…”

Nevus‐associated melanoma: An observational retrospective study of 22 patients evaluated with dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy

“…NAM usually appears in younger patients than de novo melanoma (DNM), with multiple nevi and in intermittently sun‐exposed skin areas as the trunk or extremities, as it occurs in our work. According to some authors, personal history of NAM is the most important risk factor to have another NAM, so this group of patients may benefit even more of digital dermoscopic follow‐up.…”

Impact of naevus association on survival for nodular and superficial spreading melanomas

“…Sheen et al . 's retrospective study demonstrated improved recurrence‐free survival among patients with naevus‐associated compared with de novo melanomas; however, the study's predominant melanoma subtype was acral lentiginous melanoma (70.9%), limiting generalisability of the results …”

“…The studies that have compared survival outcomes between naevus-associated and de novo melanomas have produced conflicting results. [3][4][5][6] Superficial spreading melanoma (SSM) and nodular melanoma (NM) together account for approximately 70% of all invasive melanomas and represent the most common radial and vertical growth phase melanoma subtypes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the prognosis of naevus-associated and de novo melanoma in these two melanoma subtypes.…”

“…5 Sheen et al's retrospective study demonstrated improved recurrence-free survival among patients with naevus-associated compared with de novo melanomas; however, the study's predominant melanoma subtype was acral lentiginous melanoma (70.9%), limiting generalisability of the results. 6 Strengths of our study include the large size of the cohort and independent pathology review by an expert dermatopathologist. A limitation is that we did not include the less common melanoma subtypes, such as acral lentiginous melanoma and lentigo maligna melanoma.…”