The following is a summary of “Association between dermatology follow-up and melanoma survival: A population-based cohort study,” published in the June 2024 issue of Dermatology by Huang, et al.
Guidelines recommended annual dermatologic examinations for patients with melanoma, but the extent of adherence to the recommendation and its impact on survival remained uncertain. For a study, researchers sought to assess the level of adherence to annual dermatologic follow-up in patients with primary cutaneous melanoma, identify predictors for better adherence, and evaluate whether adherence was associated with melanoma-related mortality.
A retrospective inception cohort analysis was conducted on adults with primary invasive melanoma in Ontario, Canada, from 2010 to 2013, with follow-up until December 31, 2018.
Adherence to dermatologic follow-up was variable, with only 28.0% of patients seeing a dermatologist annually (median follow-up of 5.0 years). Predictors for better adherence included younger age, female sex, higher income, greater access to dermatology care, stage 2/3 melanoma, prior keratinocyte carcinoma, fewer comorbidities, and any outpatient visit 12 months before melanoma diagnosis. Greater adherence to annual dermatology visits was associated with reduced melanoma-specific mortality compared to lower levels of adherence (adjusted hazard ratio 0.64, 95% CI 0.52-0.78). Limitations of the study included its observational design and inability to identify skin examinations performed by non-dermatologists.
Adherence to annual dermatology visits post-melanoma diagnosis was low. However, greater adherence may contribute to better patient survival, though further research, including randomized trials, needs to confirm this.
Reference: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0190962224003724
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