Acral lentiginous melanoma versus other melanoma: A single-center analysis in Japan.
We summarize herein our 14-year experience of conventional treatment outcomes before the era of molecular-targeted therapy and immunotherapy. Specifically, we conducted a retrospective review of our 252 patients with primary cutaneous melanoma (acral lentiginous melanoma [ALM], n = 121; non-acral lentiginous melanoma [non-ALM], n = 131), and compared the prognostic factors between ALM and non-ALM. Melanoma-specific survival and disease-free survival were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Regarding the results, all patients were Japanese (106 male and 146 female), with a mean age of 60.1 years. Among ALM patients, age was elder and primary tumor size was larger than non-ALM. As for tumor thickness, in situ lesions were more frequently observed in ALM. There was no significant difference in the distribution of tumor thickness between the two groups when excluding the in situ lesions. For treatment of the primary melanoma, 248 patients (98.4%) had undergone curative surgical excision and 120 patients with more than 1 mm or ulcerated melanoma had undergone sentinel lymph node biopsy. Patients with systemic metastasis primarily underwent dacarbazine-based chemotherapy. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves revealed no significant difference in melanoma-specific survival and disease-free survival between those with ALM and non-ALM. The results also showed that both ALM and non-ALM, when they initially metastasize, first affect the regional lymph nodes. Incisional biopsy was not an adverse prognostic factor. These results suggest that ALM does not differ in its biological behavior from non-ALM, so we can consider ALM as being equivalent to non-ALM. The initial treatment for ALM and non-ALM can involve the same strategy.
['Wada|Maiko|M|http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7617-7038', 'Ito|Takamichi|T|', 'Tsuji|Gaku|G|', 'Nakahara|Takeshi|T|', 'Hagihara|Akihito|A|', 'Furue|Masutaka|M|', 'Uchi|Hiroshi|H|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D000970:Antineoplastic Agents D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D003606:Dacarbazine D062109:Dermatologic Surgical Procedures D018572:Disease-Free Survival D005260:Female D005500:Follow-Up Studies D006801:Humans D007167:Immunotherapy D007564:Japan D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis D008297:Male D008545:Melanoma D008875:Middle Aged D011379:Prognosis D012189:Retrospective Studies D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy D012867:Skin D016896:Treatment Outcome D055815:Young Adult
acral lentiginous melanoma outcome prognostic factor sentinel lymph node prognosis