Disparity in outcomes of melanoma adjuvant immunotherapy by demographic profile

Abstract

Background: Randomized comparisons have demonstrated survival benefit of adjuvant immunotherapy in node-positive melanoma patients but have limited power to determine if this benefit persists across various demographic factors. Materials & methods: We assessed the impact of demographic factors on the survival benefit of adjuvant immunotherapy in a database of 38,189 node-positive melanoma patients using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models. Results: All assessed demographic factors other than race significantly impacted survival of node-positive melanoma patients in univariate analysis. In multivariable analysis, only the age group interacted with immunotherapy. Conclusion: Analysis of this large database of unselected node-positive melanoma patients demonstrated a positive survival benefit of immunotherapy across all demographic factors assessed and the impact was greater for patients 65 years of age and older.