Pregnancy Could Worsen Melanoma Outcomes, Study Confirms

Pregnancy increases the risk of poor outcomes in melanoma, according to a review of melanoma cases at the Cleveland Clinic. The effect of pregnancy on melanoma has been debated for more than a decade. Some studies have found evidence of worse outcomes, but others have not. That prompted Dr Natasha Mesinkovska, a dermatologist at the clinic, and her colleagues to review their own melanoma outcomes over the past 20 years. They compared 49 women who were pregnant or within a year of pregnancy at diagnosis, with 418 women of childbearing age who were not pregnant. All the patients had at least 2 years follow-up.

Mortality (20% vs. 10.3%; P = .06); recurrence (12.5% vs. 1.4%; P < .001); metastasis (25% vs. 12.7%; P = .03); and the use of radiation and chemotherapy were all more common in the pregnancy group. On logistic regression, women who were pregnant or recently pregnant at the time of melanoma diagnosis were 5.1 times more likely to die of the disease than those who weren’t (P = .03), Dr Mesinkovska reported at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Complete article on Oncology Practice: http://bit.ly/1DdB5ct