Breslow density ability to predict melanoma survival: should it be used in clinical practice?

• Published in: Clinical and experimental dermatology Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 56 - 61
• Main Authors: Gil-Pallares, Pedro, Figueroa-Silva, Olalla, Taboada-Paz, Laura, Gil-Pallares, María Eugenia, Sánchez-Aguilar Rojas, María Dolores, Balboa-Barreiro, Vanesa, Navarro-Bielsa, Alba, Suárez-Peñaranda, José Manuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 23.12.2024
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Disease-Free Survival; Female; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Melanoma - mortality; Melanoma - pathology; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Prognosis; Retrospective Studies; ROC Curve; Skin Neoplasms - mortality; Skin Neoplasms - pathology; Survival Rate
• ISSN: 0307-6938; 1365-2230; 1365-2230
• DOI: 10.1093/ced/llae292

Breslow density (BD) is an estimation of melanoma volume, which has emerged as a novel histopathological prognostic biomarker. To evaluate the role of BD as a predictor of patients' survival and assess its prognostic value in relation to overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), melanoma-specific survival (MSS) and metastasis-free survival (MFS). A retrospective observational study in a cohort of 107 patients with invasive melanoma was conducted. Kaplan-Meier and Log-rank tests were used for 10-year survival analysis. The ability of BD and Breslow thickness (BT) to predict survival was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curves. The average follow-up was 115 months, excluding deaths. People with BD ≥ 65% showed lower survival rates compared with the BD < 65% group (log-rank test P < 0.001). Area under the curve (AUC) of BD ≥ 65% was higher than BTs for all studied survival rates except for MSS, in which absolute BD showed the highest value. BD is proposed as a simple, valuable and inexpensive histopathological feature that could provide additional valuable information to that available from melanoma staging, as it has proved to have a statistically significant prognostic value in relation to survival in patients with melanoma and comparable 10-year survival prediction ability with that of BT.