ecancermedicalscience

Short Communication

Appearance of malignant melanoma after a non-cutaneous cancer diagnosis

7 May 2013
Ugo Bottoni, Rita Clerico, Giovanni Paolino, Marina Ambrifi, Cecilia Luci, Paola Corsetti, Stefano Calvieri

Background: The aim of this study is to find the associations between malignant melanoma (MM) and other non-cutaneous malignancies and to see whether there are possible correlations between them.

Methods: We analysed a sample of 1720 patients collected by our melanoma database, to identify patients with both MM and non-cutaneous primary cancer (NCC). The incidence rate (IR) included in our database was calculated as the ratio between the observed patients with NCC and those with MM.

Results: A total of 74 patients, with both NCC and MM, were included in our analysis, corresponding to 4.30% of patients with MM present in our melanoma database. After breast cancer (24.3%; IR = 1:4), the most common malignancies were lymphomas (14.8%; IR = 1:4), renal cell carcinoma (13.5%; IR = 1:7), thyroid cancer (9.4%; IR = 1:11), and prostatic carcinoma (8.1%; IR = 1:12), followed by other cancers. Among patients with lymphomas, most patients (72.7%) had a non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Our study shows a high coexistence of multiple malignancies in patients with MM.

Conclusion: Although we cannot definitively confirm a true association between non-skin cancers and MM, we believe that there are sufficient links for further investigation in order to identify new aetiological factors and therapeutic targets for these cancers.

Related Articles

Mohammad Saad Salim Naviwala, Mirza Rameez Samar, Daania Shoaib, Fizza Akbar, Romana Idrees, Yasmin Abdul Rashid
Joseph Daniels, Leroy Baffoe-Krapim, Andrew Yaw Nyantakyi, Edwina Ayaaba Ayabilah, Judith Naa Odey Tackie, Kofi Adesi Kyei
Luís Felipe Leite da Silva, Erick Figueiredo Saldanha, Lucas Diniz da Conceição, Wolney de Andrade Martins, Ronaldo Altenburg Gismondi, Erito Marques de Souza Filho, Renata D’Alpino Peixoto
Isabel Saffie-Vega, Sergio Muñoz-Navarro, Macarena Manríquez-Mimica, Jorge Sapunar-Zenteno
Raúl Sandoval-Ato, Patricia Coral-Gonzales, Sebastian Coronel-Arias, Luisa Espinoza-Mantilla, Grace Terrones-Chaparro, Victor Serna-Alarcón