This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lens, M. B. Articles by Newton Bishop, J. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lens, M. B. Articles by Newton Bishop, J. A. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Effect of Pregnancy on Survival in Women With Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma

From the Genetic Epidemiology Division, Cancer Research UK, St James's University Hospital, Leeds, UK; Division of Dermatology, Division of Pathology, University Hospital; Department of Biomedicine and Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Linköping, Linköping; Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute and Department of Epidemiology, Stockholm Center for Public Health, Stockholm, Sweden

Address reprint requests to Marko B. Lens, MD, PhD, Genetic Epidemiology Division, Cancer Research UK, St James's University Hospital, Beckett St, Leeds LS9 7TF, UK; e-mail: markolens{at}aol.com

PURPOSE: An adverse influence of pregnancy on the risk of death in women with cutaneous melanoma was suggested historically by anecdotal reports. Previous studies included small numbers of women observed for short periods.

METHODS: Using data from the Swedish National and Regional Registries, we performed a retrospective cohort study of all Swedish women who were diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma during their reproductive period, from January 1, 1958, to December 31, 1999. The relationship between pregnancy status at the diagnosis of melanoma and overall survival was examined in multivariable proportional-hazards models.

RESULTS: The cohort comprised 185 women (3.3%) diagnosed with melanoma during pregnancy and 5,348 (96.7%) women of the same childbearing age diagnosed with melanoma while not pregnant. There was no statistically significant difference in overall survival between pregnant and nonpregnant groups (log-rank ²1[r] = 0.84, P = .361). Pregnancy status at the time of diagnosis of melanoma was not related to survival in a multivariable Cox model in the 2,101 women (hazard ratio for death in the pregnant group was 1.08; 95% CI, 0.60 to 1.93). In the multivariable analysis, pregnancy status after diagnosis of melanoma was not a significant predictor of survival (hazard ratio for death in women who had pregnancy subsequent to the diagnosis of melanoma was 0.58; 95% CI, 0.32 to 1.05).

CONCLUSION: The survival of pregnant women with melanoma is not worse than the survival of nonpregnant women with melanoma. Pregnancy subsequent to the diagnosis of primary melanoma was not associated with an increased risk of death.

Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are found at the end of this article.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Lens, I. Rosdahl, and J. Newton-Bishop Cutaneous Melanoma During Pregnancy: Is the Controversy Over? J. Clin. Oncol., July 1, 2009; 27(19): e11 - e12. [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. F. Firoz, M. Warycha, J. Zakrzewski, D. Pollens, G. Wang, R. Shapiro, R. Berman, A. Pavlick, P. Manga, H. Ostrer, et al. Association of MDM2 SNP309, Age of Onset, and Gender in Cutaneous Melanoma Clin. Cancer Res., April 1, 2009; 15(7): 2573 - 2580. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Stensheim, B. Moller, T. van Dijk, and S. D. Fossa Cause-Specific Survival for Women Diagnosed With Cancer During Pregnancy or Lactation: A Registry-Based Cohort Study J. Clin. Oncol., January 1, 2009; 27(1): 45 - 51. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Melanoma and Pregnancy: No Fatal Concerns Journal Watch Dermatology, March 2, 2005; 2005(302): 5 - 5. [Full Text]