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Oral melanoma: a multicenter study of 69 patients from Japan

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Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this multicenter retrospective study was to investigate the demographic characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with mucosal malignant melanoma (MM) of the oral cavity.

Materials and methods

This was a multicenter study involving 8 Japanese universities. The medical records of 69 patients who were diagnosed with primary oral MM between January 2000 and December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Overall survival (OS) and prognostic factors for OS were analyzed statistically.

Results

There were 40 (58.0%) males and 29 (42.0%) females, and their mean (range) age was 69.8 ± 14.6 (22–96) years old. The most common primary site was the palate (30 patients, 43.5%). Stage IVA was the most common disease stage (36 patients, 52.2%). Radical therapy was performed in 55 patients (79.7%). The 2-year and 5-year OS rates of the 69 patients were 64.6% and 42.5%, respectively. The 2-year and 5-year OS rates of the stage III patients were 85.9% and 72.5%, respectively, and those of the stage IVA patients were 56.3% and 26.0%, respectively. The 1-year OS rate of the stage IVB/IVC patients was 26.7%. The 2-year and 5-year OS rates of the radical therapy group were 74.1% and 50.5%, respectively, whereas the 2-year OS rate of the non-radical therapy group was 26.0%. An advanced T classification was the only identified prognostic factor for OS (hazard ratio: 6.312, 95% confidence interval: 1.133–38.522, p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Early detection and radical treatment are essential for improving the prognosis of oral MM patients.

Clinical relevance

Early detection and adequate radical therapy leads to the better prognosis of oral MM patients.

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Abbreviations

MM:

Mucosal malignant melanoma

NCCN:

National Comprehensive Cancer Network

CTLA-4:

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4

PD-1:

Programmed death-1

AJCC:

American Joint Committee on Cancer

OS:

Overall survival

HR:

Hazard ratio

CI:

Confidence interval

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Medical English Service (https://www.med-english.com/) for their help with the English proofreading.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan

    Shin-ichi Yamada, Atsushi Takizawa & Hiroshi Kurita

  2. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Academic Assembly, University of Toyama, 2630, Sugitani, Toyama, 930-0194, Japan

    Shin-ichi Yamada

  3. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan

    Takumi Hasegawa & Yasumasa Kakei

  4. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan

    Nobuhiro Yamakawa & Tadaaki Kirita

  5. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Division of Surgery, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Japan

    Masashi Tamura & Yoshihide Ota

  6. The 1st Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Graduate School of Dentistry, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

    Masaya Okura

  7. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Saiseikai Matsusaka General Hospital, Matsuzaka, Japan

    Masaya Okura

  8. Department of Clinical Oral Oncology, Unit of Translational Medicine, Course of Medical and Dental Sciences, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

    Tomofumi Naruse & Mitsunobu Otsuru

  9. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hokkaido Cancer Center, Sapporo, Japan

    Shin Rin & Michihiro Ueda

  10. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Keiyukai Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo, Japan

    Tetsuro Yamashita

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  1. Shin-ichi Yamada
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Contributions

Conception and design of the study: YS. Analysis and interpretation of data: YS. Collection and assembly of data: HT, YN, TM, TA, KY, OM, NT, OM, RS, UM, YT, KT, OY. Drafting of the article: YS. Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: YS. Final approval of the article: KH.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shin-ichi Yamada.

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Ethics approval

The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Shinshu University School of Medicine. (No.3293).

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For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Age distribution of oral mucosal melanoma patients The number of oral MM patients increased with age (PNG 14 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 62 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

(PDF 824 kb)

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Yamada, Si., Hasegawa, T., Yamakawa, N. et al. Oral melanoma: a multicenter study of 69 patients from Japan. Clin Oral Invest 26, 6187–6193 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-022-04568-w

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