Objective:
Excess body weight have been regarded as the risk factor for many types of cancers associated with poor prognosis including melanoma. However, various results presented between obesity defined by body mass index (BMI) and the survival outcomes in melanoma patients. The studies in Asian groups are rare. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the correlation between obesity and prognosis of cutaneous melanoma in Taiwan.
Material and methods:
A retrospective medical chart review was performed for all patients diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma at Taipei Veterans General Hospital between 2000 and 2022. At diagnosis, body mass index (BMI), clinicopathological characteristics (Breslow thickness, tumor ulceration and sentinel lymph node involvement) and mortality were recorded. The primary result was the prognosis of melanoma in relation to BMI analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method. Secondary outcome was the influencing factors of disease progression of melanoma using multivariate logistic regression.
Results:
The mean (SD) age of the patients was 66.9 (16.2) years old. 62% of the patients were male. In total, 75(27.5%) and 15 (5.5%) patients were overweight and obesity respectively. The median survival moths were 38 months. Median Breslow thickness was 3.0 mm. After adjusting for age, sex, obesity, alcohol intake and smoking habits, Age (P=0.015, OR,95%CI 2.114 (1.155 to 3.868)), patients with overweight (P=0.01, OR,95%CI 0.457 (0.252-0.829)) and male (P=0.001 OR,95%CI 2.868 (1.537-5.351)) were the significant prognostic factors. Patient with excess body weight had more favorable overall survival outcome (P<0.0052).
Conclusion:
In melanoma patients, those with excess body weight had better survival outcomes.
Further investigation is needed to deepen our knowledge.

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