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Soo Park, MD
Soo Park, MD
Posted: Friday, January 17, 2025
A simple mnemonic—ATLAS—may help treating physicians identify patients with cutaneous melanoma who are more likely than others to experience disease recurrence, according to an article in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Hensin Tsao, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and colleagues defined the symptoms composing ATLAS as follows:
The team performed a retrospective study of nearly 300 patients with cutaneous melanoma to identify these five symptoms, all found to be significantly associated with recurrence. Using this easy-to-remember yet high-impact review of systems in surveillance may offer improved recurrence detection, they noted. Currently, there are no standardized, evidence-based surveillance practices to optimize such detection, and the strategies employed are sometimes costly and morbid as well as lack emphasis on patient history.
However, the authors acknowledged, the model should be validated with additional evidence from high-quality research. Further, using “more advanced scoring systems that include patient demographics and clinical history, including risk factors such as tumor thickness, age, male sex, nodular histology, and tumor ulceration, and patient-reported symptoms, [a review of systems] could be constructed for more precise prediction and downstream radiological surveillance,” wrote Dr. Tsao and co-investigators.
The 281 patients initially began treatment for cutaneous melanoma between June 2015 and December 2017. A total of 189 patients experienced disease recurrence by April 2023, whereas 92 did not. Of those 189, 40.7% reported at least one of the ATLAS symptoms.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
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