Skip to main content

Characteristics Differ for Melanomas in Children, Teens, Young Adults

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Nov 26, 2024.

via HealthDay

TUESDAY, Nov. 26, 2024 -- Tumor characteristics differ significantly among pediatric and adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with melanoma, with decreasing incidence rates seen among young patients with cutaneous melanoma, according to a study published online Nov. 15 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Bianca E. Ituarte, from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, and colleagues examined the incidence trends and melanoma presentations based on age, sex, race, and ethnicity using a large cohort of diagnoses from 1997 to 2020 in a retrospective cohort study completed using the National Childhood Cancer Registry for pediatric and AYA patients.

The researchers found that for pediatric and AYA patients, the incidence rates were 1.74 and 62.05 per 1 million person-years, respectively. Overall, 62.3 percent of the cohort was female. Non-Hispanic White patients accounted for 87.5 percent of all diagnoses, with the incidence rates of melanoma significantly higher compared with all other racial and ethnic groups in pediatric and AYA patients. The most common of the specified histologic subtypes was superficial spreading. In pediatric patients, the most common location was the lower extremity compared with the trunk in AYA. In both pediatric and AYA groups, there were significant differences in the distributions of primary tumor location by sex and by race and ethnicity.

"While a melanoma diagnosis in this age group is rare, our data provide incidence rates by age, gender, race and ethnicity, and clinical presentation patterns that can help the clinician understand individuals who may be at risk," the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to Castle Biosciences.

Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Presurgical Immunotherapy Offers Long-Term Benefit in Melanoma

FRIDAY, July 18, 2025 -- Neoadjuvant systemic treatment (NST) followed by adjuvant treatment with nivolumab and relatlimab offers long-term benefit in adults with stage III/IV...

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Affordability Tied to Widening Survival Disparity

FRIDAY, July 11, 2025 -- The introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) was associated with a widening survival disparity between those with private insurance and those...

AI Better for Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Quantification in Melanoma Than Traditional Methods

TUESDAY, July 8, 2025 -- For tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) quantification in melanoma, an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm demonstrates superior reproducibility and...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.