Mortality Varies With Primary Tumor Location in Cutaneous Melanoma

WEDNESDAY, April 15, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), primary tumor location in the head and neck site is associated with increased mortality, while mortality is lower for sites in the upper limb/shoulder and lower limb/hip, according to a study published in the April issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.Shiyuan Wei, M.D., from The Affiliated Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital of Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues conducted a multicenter, retrospective study using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program from 2000 to 2021 involving patients with historically confirmed primary CMM.Overall, 23.0 percent of the 162,871 patients died during the median 6.3-year follow-up. The researchers found that compared with the trunk, the head and neck site was significantly associated with an increased risk for all-cause and cancer-specific mortality in the multivariate Cox model (adjusted hazard ratios, 1.08 and 1.05, respectively), while sites in the upper limb/shoulder and lower limb/hip were significantly associated with a lower risk for all-cause (hazard ratios, 0.91 and 0.89, respectively) and cancer-specific mortality (adjusted hazard ratios, 0.79 and 0.96, respectively). In various subgroups and sensitivity analyses, the associations were consistent."Future studies should explore additional factors or treatment variations impacting mortality risk," the authors write.Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required).Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Mortality Varies With Primary Tumor Location in Cutaneous Melanoma

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