Narrow margins may be acceptable in pediatric melanoma

In children with melanoma, excisions >1 cm did not appear to be associated with improved survival, regardless of tumor characteristics, leading researchers to suggest that narrower margins may be acceptable.

A total of 2081 patients <20 years of age with invasive, cutaneous melanoma were included. Overall, 1338 underwent wide excision whereas 743 (>1 cm) and 742 underwent narrow excision (≤1 cm).

The unadjusted overall survival (OS) was improved in patients who underwent narrow-excision, regardless of whether their tumors were thicker (>1 mm) or thinner (≤1 mm)

There was no difference in OS between the narrow excision group compared to the wide excision group after adjusting for patient and tumor characteristics. The effect of excision margin width on OS does not differ based on Breslow depth.

Reference
Farrow NE, Kim J, Wolf S, et al. Examining the role of wide excision margins in pediatric melanoma: A National Cancer Database analysis. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2022;e29884. doi: 10.1002/pbc.29884. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35969119.