Metastatic acral melanoma treatment outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Metastatic acral melanoma treatment outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis Via Melanoma Research - Published Ahead-of-Print Acral melanomas are a unique subset of melanomas occurring on the palms, soles, and nails. There is poor prognosis with surgery alone and no specific guidelines for the treatment of metastatic acral melanoma. This meta-analysis explored the systemic therapy outcomes for metastatic acral melanoma. Medline, Pubmed, EMBA SE, and the grey literature were searched from 2010 to August 2020 for studies specifying the treatment outcome of metastatic acral melanoma. Studies were assessed by two investigators. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed and pooled Kaplan–Meier curves for progression-free survival and overall survival were created. Critical appraisal was performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Nineteen nonrandomized studies were included, comprising 646 patients with acral melanomas and 1609 patients with nonacral melanomas treated with systemic therapy including chemotherapy, KIT-targeted drugs, as well as anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Thirteen studies included Kaplan–Meier curves for progression-free survival or overall survival and 11 studies reported treatment responses. Patients with acral melanomas had worse prognosis than nonacral cutaneous melanoma (acral overall survival: median 15 months, 95% CI, 13.7–16.3 months; nonacral cutaneous: median 24 months, 95% CI, 22.6–25.4 months, P  View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.