Epidemiological Features and Prognostic Factors of Cutaneous Head and Neck Melanoma

Abstract

To describe the epidemiological features of cutaneous head and neck melanoma (CHNM) and to identify factors associated with mortality from this disease.

Survival Differences Between Patients With Scalp or Neck Melanoma and Those With Melanoma of Other Sites in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program

“…Leong et al 24 noted that, among 614 patients receiving selective sentinel lymph node biopsy at multiple tertiary care medical centers, those with melanomas located on the scalp had more than 3-fold greater mortality than those with melanomas on the face. Most recently, Golger et al, 25 analyzing 2218 head and neck melanomas from the provincial Cancer Registry of Ontario, Canada, found that patients with scalp/neck lesions were 53% more likely to die than patients with melanomas on the face. Although much of the literature is in accord with our conclusions, disagreement among studies may result from differences in sample sizes, in study populations, or in variables used in multivariate modeling.…”

“…Although some studies suggest that scalp melanomas have somewhat worse prognosis than neck melanomas, 4,5,21,24 others have found similar survival rates for these sites 23 or have grouped them together for analysis. 6,22,25 Overall, the prognosis for both scalp and neck melanomas seems to be poorer than for melanomas arising elsewhere. In addition, our study is susceptible to selection bias, misclassification bias, and confounding.…”

Impact of Sentinel Node Biopsy on Outcome in Melanoma

“…These account for up 21% of all melanomas diagnosed annually (Gillgren et al 2000;Golger et al 2007;Lachiewicz et al 2008), have worse outcomes relative to melanomas of the trunk and extremities (Gillgren et al 2000;Lachiewicz et al 2008), clinically manifest as thicker lesions at their initial diagnosis and thus present at an advanced stage (Gillgren et al 2000;Hoersch, Leiter, and Garbe 2006). SLNB for melanomas of the head and neck regions is limited by technical difficulties with specific concern surrounding damage to vital structures such as the facial nerve (Eicher et al 2002).…”

Burden of Illness for Metastatic Melanoma in Canada, 2011–2013

“…In Canada, an estimated 6800 new cases of cutaneous melanoma and 1150 related deaths were predicted for 2015 13 . In addition, evidence suggests that the incidence of cmm across Canada is increasing, a trend that has also been seen in other countries worldwide [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] .…”