A major analysis of gender differences among 4,645 cases of paediatric and adolescent melanoma reported in the US National Cancer Database has highlighted significant differences in both presentation and survival rates.
A team of 5 researchers from the Universities of Arizona, Atlanta and Nebraska – who examined biopsy-confirmed invasive primary cutaneous melanoma cases in patients aged 0-21 between 2004-2018 – reported a ‘significant relationship between primary site on body and gender’.
The paediatric and adolescent age groups were defined by the American Academy of Paediatrics: infant (birth-2 years); childhood (3-10); early adolescence (11-14); middle adolescence (15-17); late adolescence (18-21).
The review, published in contemporarypediatrics.com, found significant gender-related differences among the 4,645 paediatric melanoma cases reported:
- 63.4% were female and 36.6% males;
- females had ‘higher rates of superficial spreading melanoma’;
- males were ‘qmore likely affected by nodular melanoma’;
- more females (67.8%) were likely to be diagnosed with stage 1 disease than males (53.6%);
- the 5 and 10-year overall survival rates were higher for females (95.9% and 93.9% than for males (92% and 86.7%).
In addition, the data showed that, although melanoma was less common in males, they were more likely to have a higher stage at the time of diagnosis.
The analysis of the primary melanoma sites also revealed:
- ‘trunk’ for 34.3% of females and 32.9% of males;
- ‘head and neck’ for 16.4% of females and 30.09% of males;
- ‘upper extremities’ for 19.5% of females and 16% of males;
- ‘lower extremities’ for 27.9% of females and 16.5% of males.
