Proliferation Marker Ki67 as a Stratification Index of Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Resectable Mucosal Melanoma

BackgroundAdjuvant chemotherapy has been shown to produce a favorable prognosis for patients with resectable mucosal melanoma (MM), resulting in the need for stratification to optimally select patients to benefit from adjuvant therapy. This study analyzed Ki67 as a potential stratification index for adjuvant chemotherapy in resectable MM.MethodsPatients with resected MM who received subsequent adjuvant therapy in Beijing Cancer Hospital between 2010 and 2018 were retrospectively enrolled and analyzed. Relapse-free survival (RFS) and melanoma-specific survival (MSS) curves were used to perform the survival comparisons across different subgroups.ResultsFrom Jan 2010 to Dec 2018, 1106 MM patients were screened from a database of 4706 patients and 175 of these patients were finally enrolled. A total of 100 patients received temozolomide (TMZ)-based adjuvant chemotherapy and 75 patients received high-dose interferon-α2b (HDI) adjuvant therapy. Compared with HDI, patients who received TMZ-based adjuvant chemotherapy had significantly superior RFS (21.0 vs. 9.6 months, P = 0.002). For patients with low Ki67 expression (