The association of host and genetic melanoma risk factors with Breslow thickness in the Western Australian Melanoma Health Study

Abstract

SummaryBackground Breslow thickness is the most important predictor of survival in localized malignant melanoma. A number of melanoma risk factors have been shown to be associated with Breslow thickness; however, the role of genetic loci has been little investigated to date. Objectives To investigate the association of known melanoma susceptibility genetic loci with Breslow thickness. Methods Participants were 800 individuals from the Western Australian Melanoma Health Study who completed a questionnaire and provided a DNA sample. Genetic association analyses between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 15 candidate melanoma susceptibility genes and Breslow thickness were performed, controlling for relevant covariates.Results Older age at diagnosis and absence of naevi were associated with increased Breslow thickness. Following adjustment for multiple testing, no SNPs were significantly associated with Breslow thickness. Conclusions Associations observed between Breslow thickness and age and naevi reinforce current knowledge. Some evidence of shared genetic determinants between melanoma risk and Breslow thickness was found. Further studies are required to confirm this finding.

The impact of body area in melanoma self-detection

“…This result is certainly related to the fact that the chest and abdominal areas are most visible to the patients. Furthermore, our findings were confirmed after adjusting for age, that is, a significant confounding variable, as younger age at the time of diagnosis was associated with significantly lower melanoma thickness in several studies (Ambrosini-Spaltro et al, 2014;Cadby et al, 2014;Haenssle et al, 2014).…”

Incidence and characteristics of thick second primary melanomas: a study of the German Central Malignant Melanoma Registry

“…These findings are in line with earlier reports 11,12 and the work of Hwa et al 13 who could further demonstrate that the biology of primary tumours, as measured by the presence or absence of mitoses, did not differ between patients with and without SPMs. This observation is important as patients with SPMs are known to have a higher density of common 14 and dysplastic nevi 11 and some studies 15,16 have highlighted that thick and aggressive melanomas develop more often in patients with low nevus count. However, this correlation could not be confirmed by other studies 17 including two studies investigating risk factors for fast growing melanomas.…”

IRF4 rs12203592 functional variant and melanoma survival

“…Supporting this finding, a previous study reported that the IRF4 rs12203592 T allele was associated with melanoma with solar elastosis, which is a characteristic highly prevalent in melanomas developed on the head and neck . We also explored the association between IRF4 rs12203592 and Breslow thickness which has been previously reported, but this was not detected in our sets of patients. The main limitation of this study is the retrospective design of two sets with different characteristics.…”