Histopathologic margin distance in survival in resection of cutaneous melanoma of the head and neck.

Objectives/hypothesis: Treatment of cutaneous melanoma involves surgical excision with wide clinical margins. No guidelines regarding safe histopathologic margin distance exist. This study examines the impact of histopathologic margin, measured from closest cut edge of the specimen, on overall survival in resection of cutaneous melanoma of the head and neck. We hypothesize that close histopathologic margins (<2 mm) are associated with decreased survival.

Study Design: Retrospective chart review.

Methods: A total of 637 patients were treated for cutaneous melanoma of the head and neck between 2001 and 2011. Demographics, tumor characteristics, histopathologic margin distance (from a pathology database), and survival data from state health registries and health system clinical data repositories were used to create a dataset. Cox regression models and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to analyze data, adjusting for age, tumor location, ulceration, and depth of invasion (DOI).

Results: When analyzing for overall survival, Cox multivariate regression analysis showed age (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.0-1.1), DOI (HR = 1.2-1.5), ulceration (HR = 1.3-3.8), and subsite (ear, HR = 1.0-3.9) were significant predictors of survival. Histopathologic margin distance was not significant for predicting survival. Three percent of histopathologic margins were <1 mm.

Conclusions: In a large dataset of head and neck cutaneous melanoma, known factors associated with overall survival (age, DOI, ulceration, subsite) proved significant, validating the dataset. Examining the effect of histopathologic margin distance on survival, while controlling for these factors, we failed to reject the null hypothesis. Margin distance as measured by histopathology does not affect survival.

Level Of Evidence: 4.