The following is a summary of “Prognostic role of microsatellites in melanoma and implications in the American Joint Committee on Cancer classification system: A cohort study,” published in the FEBRUARY 2023 issue of Dermatology by Loughlin, et al.

The results of microsatellite survival in melanoma patients need to be better understood. For a study, researchers sought to analyze sentinel lymph node biopsies in patients with microsatellites, their involvement in stage III of the American Joint Committee on Cancer classification, and survival outcomes in patients with microsatellites.

Patients with an invasive cutaneous melanoma diagnosis were enrolled in a retrospective bi-center cohort research from 1998 to 2019.

About 108 (2.1%) of the 5,216 patients had microsatellites at the time of initial staging. According to a survival study, microsatellites were identified as a risk factor for lower overall survival (OS), melanoma-specific survival (MSS), and disease-free survival, with hazard ratios of 1.57, 1.76, and 1.76, respectively. Patients with stage III melanoma who had undergone stratified analysis had a 5-year OS of 35% (95% CI, 17.3%-73.4%) and an MSS of 45% (95% CI, 23.1-87.5) for those who had stage IIIB melanoma with microsatellites.

Microsatellites were linked to additional unfavorable melanoma prognostic variables. Their independent risk for poorer OS, MSS, and disease-free survival was demonstrated by a multivariate Cox regression analysis. While stage IIIC melanoma patients had worse OS but no MSS, stage IIIB melanoma patients with microsatellites had worse OS and MSS.

Reference: jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(22)02898-5/fulltext