F. Bruder Stapleton, MD reviewing Hamilton EC et al. J Pediatr 2016 May 24.

Among children with melanoma, those who are young or Hispanic have a higher mortality risk than older or non-Hispanic white children.

Melanoma, an aggressive cancer, is increasing and now accounts for 1% to 3% of childhood malignancies. To determine whether there are health disparities in melanoma presentation and outcomes in children, researchers retrospectively studied 185 adolescents (age >10 years) and 50 children (age ≤10 years) with melanoma who were enrolled in the Texas Cancer Registry from 1995 to 2009.

Overall, 75% of patients were non-Hispanic white, 12% were Hispanic, and 13% were other races; 75% of patients presented with local disease, 22% with regional disease, and 3% with distant metastasis. Hispanics and young children were more likely to present with advanced-stage melanoma than non-Hispanic whites and adolescents (adjusted odds ratios, 3.5 and 2.2, respectively). More than 50% of Hispanics had advanced disease compared with 23% of non-Hispanic whites. Hispanics and patients in the lowest socioeconomic quartile had significantly higher mortality risk than their counterparts. Overall survival was worse in those with advanced-stage disease.

CITATION(S):

Hamilton EC et al. Health disparities influence childhood melanoma stage at diagnosis and outcome. J Pediatr 2016 May 24; [e-pub].

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