Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct 15;11(1):20524.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-99950-1.

Prognostic factors and population-based analysis of melanoma with sentinel lymph node biopsy

Ping-Chung Wu  1   2 , Yu-Ching Chen  1 , Hsiu-Min Chen  3   4 , Lee-Wei Chen  5   6   7
Affiliations

Prognostic factors and population-based analysis of melanoma with sentinel lymph node biopsy

Ping-Chung Wu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Cutaneous malignant melanoma is a rare but fatal disease in East Asia. Despite its increasing incidence, a general lack of awareness about the disease was noted. This study aims to provide population-based prognostic analysis of melanoma with sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in Taiwan. We conducted this retrospective cohort study using the data from Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database during 1997-2013. The study cohort contains 3284 patients. The 5-year survival rates of patients undergoing SLNB and not undergoing SLNB were 45.5% and 33.6%. In multivariate analysis, age ≥ 80 years [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 2.15] and male (aHR = 1.19) were associated with a poorer prognosis, while high social economic status (SES) (aHR = 0.69) and undergoing SLNB (aHR = 0.84) were good prognostic factors. Old age and low SES were associated with lower percentages of patients undergoing SLNB (P < 0.001). E-value analysis suggested robustness to unmeasured confounding. In conclusion, undergoing SLNB was associated with a better prognosis. The poor prognosis of old age and low SES may be due to decreased percentages of patients undergoing SLNB. Therefore, we recommend that SLNB should be performed on patients, especially in old age or low SES, who are candidates for SLNB according to current guidelines to achieve maximal survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Design and flowchart of patient selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall survival of patients with malignant melanoma in Taiwan. (A) Cumulative proportion of the 3284 patients expected to survive. (B) Patients in different categories of social economic status. (C) Patients undergoing sentinel lymph node biopsy or not.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Health Promotion Administration Ministry of Health and Welfare, T. Cancer Registry Annual Report, 2018 Taiwan https://www.hpa.gov.tw/Pages/ashx/File.ashx?FilePath=~/File/Attach/13498... (2020).
    1. Chen L, Jin S. Trends in mortality rates of cutaneous melanoma in East Asian populations. PeerJ. 2016;4:e2809. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2809. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chang JW, et al. Sunrise in melanoma management: Time to focus on melanoma burden in Asia. Asia Pac. J. Clin. Oncol. 2017;13:423–427. doi: 10.1111/ajco.12670. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chang, J. W.-C. et al. Malignant melanoma in Taiwan: A prognostic study of 181 cases. Melanoma Res.14, 537-541 (2004). - PubMed
    1. Luk NM, et al. Clinicopathological features and prognostic factors of cutaneous melanoma among Hong Kong Chinese. Clin. Exp. Dermatol. 2004;29:600–604. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2230.2004.01644.x. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types