Prognostic variables for patients with stage III malignant melanoma.

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic factors for patients with stage III malignant melanoma and to identify patients at high risk of developing recurrent disease who may benefit from adjuvant therapy.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: Specialist hospital, USA.

Subjects: 130 patients with stage III malignant melanoma (according to the TNM classification), treated at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute between 1970 and 1992.

Main outcome measures: Survival and prognostic factors on multivariate analysis.

Results: Four factors were independent prognostic indicators for patients with stage III malignant melanoma: age >51 years (p = 0.008), >3 involved lymph nodes, (p = 0.03), the site of the primary tumour on head or trunk, (p = 0.007), and the presence of palpable lymph nodes (p = 0.004).

Conclusion: These prognostic factors help us to stratify patients into low and high-risk groups. High-risk patients may benefit from more aggressive adjuvant therapy in future trials of treatment of melanoma.