Serum Calcium, Albumin and Tumor Stage in Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma

Abstract

High albumin adjusted serum calcium has been reported in several cancers but has not been studied in malignant melanoma. We examined the relationship between serum albumin, total and corrected calcium in malignant melanoma in a cross‐sectional study. Two thousand three hundred six patients with cutaneous melanoma were identified between Jan. 2000 and Dec. 2010 and 644 met our inclusion criteria. At the time of diagnosis, total serum calcium was non‐significantly lower in stage 4 (9.34 mg/dL) vs. stages 1‐3 (9.48‐9.51 mg/dL). Serum albumin was significantly lower in stage 4 (3.92 g/dL; p蠄0.05) than stages 0‐3 (4.09‐4.15 g/dL). Higher albumin corrected serum calcium was observed with increasing melanoma stage (9.45‐9.61 mg/dL). Men but not women showed a significant decrease in serum albumin in stage 4 when compared with stages 1‐3 (p = 0.02). Patients >75 years had significantly lower serum albumin (3.98±0.33 vs 4.16±0.35 g/dL; p<0.001), but higher adjusted calcium (9.64±0.49 vs 9.53±0.43 mg/dL; p=0.03) compared to patients 蠄 75 years. Serum albumin may serve as a biomarker to evaluate disease progression in cutaneous malignant melanoma patients. Grant Funding Source: Dr. Datta is supported by the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University Cancer Control Traineeship ‐ NCI/NIH Grant# #R25CA122061.

Impact of modern systemic therapies and clinical markers on treatment outcome for metastatic melanoma in a real‐world setting

“…Therefore, we chose to use analyse albumin as a continuous variable in the multivariable analyses. Previous studies have indicated that albumin alone or CRP‐to‐albumin ratio may serve to evaluate disease progression and prognosis rather than treatment response to ICIs 29,30 .…”

Serum calcium is a novel parameter to assess metabolic syndrome in endometrial carcinoma

“…Total serum calcium provides an important source of cytosolic Ca 2+ [2], and it has been reported to be related to several malignancies. Higher albumin-corrected serum calcium distinguishes malignant pelvic masses from benign and borderline ones [3], is positively associated with an advanced stage of malignant melanoma [4], and is positively correlated with tumor volume in postmenopausal breast cancer [5]. However, to the best of our knowledge, the relationship between serum calcium and EC has not yet been reported.…”

Clinical characteristics of malignant melanoma in central China and predictors of metastasis

“…Previous studies reported that albumin and D-dimer served as independent prognostic predictors of prognosis of patients with miliary tuberculosis (32) and the postoperative survival of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (13). In other studies investigating MM, low serum albumin levels are predictors of morbidity and mortality in patients with MM (33) and elevated D-dimer levels indicated a poor prognosis (32). However, to the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to show ADPS as an independent predictor of MM metastasis.…”