(HealthDay)—Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) is associated with improved survival compared with traditional surgery with wide margin excision (WME) for stage I melanoma, according to a study published online Sept. 25 in JAMA Dermatology.
Shayan Cheraghlou, from Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study to examine overall survival of patients with stage I melanoma defined by the American Joint Committee on Cancer Cancer Staging Manual, 8th edition after MMS versus WME. Data were included for 70,319 eligible patients with a diagnosis from Jan. 1, 2004, through Dec. 31, 2014: 67,085 treated with WME and 3,234 treated with MMS.
The researchers found that treatment with MMS correlated with a modest improvement in overall survival compared with WME in an analysis controlling for clinical and tumor factors (hazard ratio, 0.86). Survival was modestly improved in a propensity score-matched analysis of cohorts of MMS-treated versus WME-treated patients (hazard ratio, 0.82). Compared with nonacademic facilities, academic facilities were more likely to use MMS (odds ratio, 2.03).
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