1. Evaluation of 39 cases of pediatric cutaneous head and neck melanoma.
- Author
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Tcheung WJ, Marcello JE, Puri PK, Abernethy AP, and Nelson KC
- Subjects
- Academic Medical Centers, Adolescent, Age Distribution, Child, Cohort Studies, Combined Modality Therapy, Disease-Free Survival, Female, Head and Neck Neoplasms pathology, Head and Neck Neoplasms therapy, Humans, Incidence, Male, Melanoma therapy, Neoplasm Invasiveness pathology, Neoplasm Staging, North Carolina epidemiology, Prognosis, Registries, Retrospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy methods, Sex Distribution, Skin Neoplasms therapy, Survival Analysis, Head and Neck Neoplasms epidemiology, Melanoma epidemiology, Melanoma pathology, Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy statistics & numerical data, Skin Neoplasms mortality, Skin Neoplasms pathology
- Abstract
Background: Studies examining head and neck (H&N) melanoma in the pediatric population are scarce., Objective: The goal of this study is to describe pediatric H&N melanoma with the intent of increasing understanding of the course of disease., Methods: The Duke Melanoma Database and Duke Tumor Registry Database were searched for patients with a diagnosis of melanoma occurring on the H&N before age 18 years, with exclusion of ocular/mucosal/aerodigestive melanomas., Results: Queries yielded 39 Caucasian pediatric patients, 24 (61.5%) of them male. The mean age at diagnosis was 14.2 years (15 years, median). The primary sites were represented as follows: cutaneous auricular (1/39, 2.6%), facial (15/39, 38.5%), and scalp/neck (23/39, 59%). The follow-up time ranged from 2 months to 23 years with a median of 9.9 years (95% confidence interval: 6.2-13 years). At the time of follow-up, there were 12 (12/39, 30.8%) melanoma-associated deaths. The anatomic distribution of primary melanoma for these 12 patients follows: 4 (33.3%) facial and 8 (66.7%) scalp/neck. Histologic data revealed 24 (61.5%) tumors classified as superficial spreading melanoma with nodular melanoma (12.8%) a distant second. The mean Breslow depth for patients with melanoma-related mortality was 2.4 mm, compared with 1.8 mm for those who were alive at last follow-up., Limitations: Small sample size limited this study., Conclusion: This study found that the majority (59%) of H&N melanomas presented as scalp or neck lesions with a predilection for adolescents and boys. Those who experienced melanoma-related mortality had thicker lesions. Superficial spreading melanoma was the most common subtype., (Copyright © 2010 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2011
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