Vulvar/Vaginal Melanoma: An Updated Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Database Review, Comparison With Cutaneous Melanoma and Significance of Racial Disparities

Objective We aimed to compare the differences in demographic features, clinicopathologic features, and survival in patients with vulvar/vaginal melanoma versus cutaneous melanoma with a special emphasis on race. Materials and Methods Data were obtained from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database from 1973 to 2008. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox multivariate model were used for statistical analysis. Results Seven hundred sixty-two patients with vulvar/vaginal melanoma and 55,485 patients with cutaneous melanoma patients were included in the study. Twenty-eight patients of the vulvar/vaginal group and 334 patients of the cutaneous group were black (3.6% vs 0.6%, respectively). The median age at the time of diagnosis was 68 years in the vulvar/vaginal group and 52 years in the cutaneous group ( P P P = 0.0081). The median survival of the black patients was 16 months in the vulvar/vaginal group and 124 months in the cutaneous melanoma group ( P P Conclusion These findings emphasize that cutaneous and vulvar/vaginal melanomas have different clinicopathologic features and survival patterns.