“Understanding more about these locations also may help to determine and manage a patient's survival."

Malignant melanoma above the neck is more likely to spread, according to new findings presented at the 28th European Dermato-Venereology Society Congress in Madrid.

New  results from a descriptive,  6-month clinical study suggest that malignant melanoma that develops on the neck has a higher chance of spreading beyond the skin compared with malignant melanoma that develops below the neck. However, even though significantly more of these study patients had below neck malignant melanoma tumors at an advanced disease stage, none of them were found to have distant metastases. Furthermore, only one of these below neck malignant melanoma patients was diagnosed with positive lymph nodes.

Forty-five patients with new diagnoses of malignant melanoma were followed for 6 months and were divided into two groups of patients, with above neck malignant melanoma and below neck malignant melanoma.

Researchers used computer tomography staging to determine the existence and spread of cancer. Patients who had stage T2a or more disease were also offered a sentinel lymph node biopsy to further investigate the extent of the disease. Of the  37 below neck malignant melanoma patients,  none had distant metastases and only one had positive nodes (2.7 percent). Out of the 8 above neck malignant melanoma patients, two had positive nodes and distant metastases (25 percent). Therefore, the study showed that above neck malignant melanoma has a higher chance of spreading beyond the skin in comparison with below neck malignant melanoma.

“Understanding more about these locations also may help to determine and manage a patient's survival,” says Dr. Mohammed Al Abadie lead researcher of the study.