Researchers from Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands have published the results of a study that provides further evidence that women with melanoma are more likely to have improved survival rates than men.
The trial took place between 1984 and 2005 and included 2,672 patients with stage I and II melanoma. Women had highly consistent, independent advantages in several different areas, according to the abstract on the study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, including “overall survival (adjusted HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.83), disease-specific survival (adjusted HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.88), time to lymph node metastasis (adjusted HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.96), and time to distant metastasis (adjusted HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.81).”
In subgroup analyses, the female advantage remained consistent across all prognostic subgroups, with the possible exception of head and neck melanomas, and in pre- and post-menopausal age groups, according to the authors.
The researchers conclude: “Women have a consistent and independent relative advantage in all aspects of the progression of localized melanoma of approximately 30%, most likely caused by an underlying biologic sex difference.”
The same issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology featured an editorial on the study. The authors of this editorial, who are from institutions in Florida, California and New Mexico, pose and answer four questions about the study:
1. Is this gender-based disparity real or artifactual?
2. If real, what is the cause of the disparity? Is the benefit confined to only a subset of women?
3. What if any therapeutic implications are there for this observation? Should men be treated differently than women (eg, more aggressively)? Should we revisit hormone receptor analysis and/or hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen?
4. What can we do to improve outcomes in men, particularly older men?
To read the editorial, please visit https://bit.ly/JPXIu8.
