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Soo Park, MD
Soo Park, MD
Posted: Tuesday, December 17, 2024
As fatality rates of cutaneous malignant melanoma continue to rise among older individuals (≥ age 65), it is important to analyze incidence trends to better inform prevention and management strategies. An article published in Cancer Screening and Prevention highlighted findings from a study that analyzed incidence data from 1987 to 2016. Jun Lyu, MD, PhD, of the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, and colleagues found that incidence rates increased with age and birth cohort, peaking at 1.53 per 1,000 males and 0.59 per 1,000 females aged 85 and older from 2012 to 2016.
“Despite advances in treatment that have improved survival rates, malignant melanoma remains the deadliest type of skin cancer, and its global incidence continues to rise…. Elderly patients generally have a poorer prognosis, with reduced melanoma-specific survival compared to younger adults,” stated Dr. Lyu and colleagues.
Data from a total of 56,997 elderly patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma from eight Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries were the focus of this study. Data were used to calculate age-adjusted standardized population incidence rates, and specific software was used to estimate annual percentage change and analyze trends from 1987 to 2016.
Findings revealed that the overall age-adjusted cutaneous incidence rate from 2012 to 2016 was 0.99 per 1,000 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.98–1.01), a 2.8-fold increase from 1987 to 1991 (95% CI = 2.7–2.9). When stratified by gender, the age-adjusted incidence rate for females during 2012 to 2016 was 0.59 per 1,000 (95% CI = 0.57–0.60), whereas for males, it was 1.53 per 1,000 (95% CI = 1.50–1.56). Additionally, these findings highlight a significant increase since the initial cohort analysis (1987–1991), with the age-adjusted incidence rate for males rising 2.9 times (95% CI = 2.8–3.0) and for females increasing 2.3 times (95% CI = 2.2–2.4).
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit www.xiahepublishing.com.
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