Long-Term Results of Treatment of Patients with Stage IV Malignant Melanoma in the Sverdlovsk Region

Abstract

Introduction. Despite advances in early diagnosis, in 5–10 % of cases, melanoma is detected at stage IV. In recent years, there have been breakthroughs in the drug treatment of metastatic melanoma. Against this background, modern data on overall survival (OS) of this group of patients in Russia are relevant, but rarely published.Objective — to assess the OS of patients with stage IV melanoma depending on the clinical and biological characteristics of the tumor and the treatment performed in real clinical practice.Materials and methods. We retrospectively studied medical documentation in the Medofis medical information system and the regional information system ONKOR of 300 patients, residents of the Sverdlovsk region, with the first stage IV of skin melanoma, first identified from 1 January 2014 to 1 January 2023. Observation was carried out until 1 February 2024.Results. 61.3 % of patients received antitumor drug therapy. Analysis for the BRAF mutation was performed in 46.3 % of the total number of patients (75.5 % of those who received specialized treatment). A mutation in the BRAF gene was detected in 52.5 % of cases. The 1‑year OS of patients with malignant melanoma of the skin was 47.0 %, the 3‑year OS was 27.3 %. Survival rates for patients receiving targeted or immune therapy were higher. From 2014 to 2023, the proportion of patients receiving targeted therapy or checkpoint inhibitor therapy increased from 11.5 % to 69.7 %.Conclusions. There was an increase in median OS, 1‑year and 3‑year OS depending on the time of diagnosis of the disease, specialized treatment, number of lines of drug therapy, use of targeted drugs, checkpoint inhibitors.