Clinicopathological characteristics at primary melanoma diagnosis as risk factors for brain metastasis.

To better identify melanoma patients who are, at the time of primary melanoma diagnosis, at high risk of developing brain metastases, primary melanoma characteristics were examined as risk factors for brain metastasis development. In a study of two patient cohorts, clinicopathological characteristics prospectively collected at primary cutaneous melanoma diagnosis for patients with/without brain metastasis were assessed in univariate and multivariate analyses using data from two prospectively collected databases: the Melanoma Cooperative Group (MCG) (1972-1982) and the Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group (IMCG) (2002-2009). Candidate risk factors were evaluated in association with time to brain metastasis using either the log-rank test or Cox proportional hazards regression analysis with/without considering competing risks.