Second primary melanoma: Risk factors, histopathologic features, survival, and implications for follow-up

Abstract

The impact on survival of a second primary melanoma (SPM) is unclear. We used our melanoma center's database to examine clinicopathologic risk factors and outcomes of stage 0 to IV cutaneous melanoma in patients with one versus two primaries. Among 12, 325 patients with primary melanoma, 969 (7.86%) developed SPM. SPMs were significantly thinner than autologous primary melanomas (P 5 0.01), and 451 SPM patients had better overall and melanoma-specific survival than 451 prognostically matched non-SPM patients (P< 0.0001 and 0.0001, respectively) at a median follow-up of 142.37 months. Patients with cutaneous melanoma are at high risk for development of SPM, but the development of SPM does not seem to impair survival.