Introduction to the special issue of European Journal of Surgical Oncology: New roads in melanoma management

Melanoma: clinical-pathological and molecular analysis in patients of Ibague city, Colombia

This study aimed to establish the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with melanoma and its association with BRAF gene mutations. The pathology reports and paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 47 women and 30 men with melanoma, with an average age of diagnosis of 60 years, were reviewed at the Hospital Federico Lleras Acosta of Ibague, between 2010 and 2016. The presence of V600E mutation at the exon 15 of BRAF gene, was analyzed in these tumoral samples by Sanger sequencing and visual inspection of the electropherograms. We also studied the clinicopathological variables with X2, t-Student and the Kaplan Meier index. Most of the lesions were located in the lower limbs (46.6%). The most frequent subtype was Acral Lentiginous Melanoma (41.8%). Most lesions were of poor prognosis: Breslow depth greater than 4.1 mm (52.7%), ulceration (61.4%) and medium or high mitotic rate (> 30 %). The V600E mutation was identified in five patients with large, deep and ulcerated tumors, four of them had less than four years of survival. In conclusion, there was a higher frequency of melanoma in women, V600E BRAF mutation was present in patients with advanced disease (high Breslow index) and, the probability of five-year survival was less than 40%.

News from the melanoma sessions of the European Cancer Congress 2017

During the European Cancer Congress, the melanoma sessions focused on practice changing trials. Recent developments and approvals in immunotherapy and targeted agents have significantly changed the landscape of melanoma therapy in the metastatic setting and provide great promise for adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment in high-risk locoregional disease. Perioperative (combined pre- and postoperative) strategies may be extremely beneficial for patients with bulky stage IIIC disease. The long-term results of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 18071 adjuvant trial ipilimumab versus placebo after complete resection of high-risk stage III melanoma, demonstrating improvement in overall survival, has established the reference bar for further trials with postoperative therapy.