Improvement of overall survival in patients with cutaneous melanoma at a tertiary care center in Germany from 2001 to 2020.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Systemic treatment of cutaneous melanoma has changed since 2011, with clinical studies demonstrating improved outcomes. This analysis evaluated whether this improvement is evident in a real-world cohort, focusing on overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS). PATIENTS AND METHODS: 10,270 patients with cutaneous melanoma were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier analyses for OS and RFS were used to compare 4,846 patients diagnosed in 2001-2010 with 5,424 patients diagnosed in 2011-2020. RESULTS: Regarding OS, differences were found for stages II-IV. 5-year OS was 78.2% and 85.2% in stage II, 56.5% and 70.7% in stage III, and 9.8% and 34.6% in stage IV. However, in stage I no difference was observed between the two periods, with 5-year OS of 95.9% and 96.2%. For RFS, no differences were observed in stages I-III, with 5-year RFS of 93.6% and 93.1% in stage I, 66.9% and 64.3% in stage II, and 38.2% and 42.5% in stage III. CONCLUSIONS: OS has improved in stages II-IV. The difference in stage II may be caused by the high number of patients progressing to stages III-IV. No differences were found for RFS in any stage. Since adjuvant therapies were approved starting in 2018, it is still too early to observe an effect.