The melanoma mortality rate (MMR) decreased from 2013 to 2017 as a result of the availability of new and effective treatment options after 2011.

New research suggest that the use of new pharmacological therapies is associated with a decrease in the melanoma mortality rate in the U.S. population. 

In the population-based cross-sectional study of patients with cutaneous melanoma from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 1975 to 2019, the melanoma mortality rate (MMR) decreased from 2013 to 2017 as a result of the availability of new and effective treatment options after 2011.

After the introduction of newer treatments in 2011 (most after 2013), a significant reduction in MMR was seen from 2013 to 2017 in the US for the first time in the past 40 years, the study showed. Rates increased from 1975 to 1988. No statistically significant change in MMR was seen from 1988 to 2013, but he MMR decreased significantly from 2013 to 2017.

“These findings suggest a benefit associated with the availability of effective therapies in the past decade and further suggest that the use of new pharmacological therapies is associated with decreased MMR in the US population,” conclude researchers who were led by Navkirat Kahlon, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences in Toledo, Ohio. “These data are very encouraging and support the continued development of such therapies. Additionally, the accessibility of these treatments and the associated health care costs need to be addressed.”

The study is published in JAMA Network Open.