Comparative study between two different staging systems (AJCC TNM VS BALLANTYNE'S) for mucosal melanomas of the Head & Neck.
Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal 2016;
21:e425-30. [PMID:
27031071 PMCID:
PMC4920455 DOI:
10.4317/medoral.21132]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2015] [Accepted: 01/30/2016] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Background
Mucosal melanoma (MM) of head and neck (H &N) is a rare entity with a quite poor prognosis. Ballantyne’s staging system has been commonly used since 1970. In the 7th edition of the AJCC Staging Manual a new chapter for the staging of TNM Classification system for mucosal melanoma (MM) of the head and neck (H &N) has been introduced to reflect the particularly aggressive biological behavior of this neoplasm. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare among Ballantyne’s staging system vs TNM H &N in terms of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in a consecutive population of patients with MM in a cancer centre.
Material and Methods
Descriptive analysis of demographic, clinical and pathological variables of MM of the Head & Neck were performed. We compared the survival curves for both systems according to the Kaplan-Meier method using the Log-rank test.
Results
An up-staging migration effect from Ballantyne’s localized disease to moderately and very advanced disease according to AJCC staging system. The 5-year DFS and OS for Ballantyne’s Localized Disease and AJCC Stage III were 31% and 36% vs. 47% and 50%, respectively. For locoregional disease the 5-year DFS / OS were 5% / 10% for Bal-lantyne’s system vs. 13.8% / 17.8% and 0 / 0% for AJCC Stages IVA and IVB, respectively.
Conclusions
In this series, the TNM staging system for MM of the H &N predicted better the prognosis of the disease when comparing with Ballantyne’s system.
Key words:Head and neck, mucosal melanoma, AJCC TNM, Ballantynes´s staging system.
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