Additional primary malignancies in a Polish cohort of uveal melanoma patients: a review of 644 patients with long-term follow-up

Aim
To investigate the frequency and location of additional primary malignancies in a Polish cohort of uveal melanoma (UM) patients registered in a single centre database.
Material and method
Retrospective data analysis of patients treated for uveal melanoma at the Department of Ophthalmology, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poland between 1991 and 2017. Data on the diagnosis of the additional malignancies were obtained during the follow-up visits in our Department and/or from the Greater Poland Cancer Registry. The exclusion criteria comprised no confirmed follow-up or incomplete clinical entry data.
Results
Among 644 UM patients registered in the database up to 2017, the additional malignancy was diagnosed in 126 (20%) patients: 71 men, 55 women at the median age of 67 years (range: 34–94). In 48 patients (38%), the additional malignancy occurred prior to the diagnosis of UM, in 73 (58%) patients - after it. The most common locations of second cancer were skin (20 cases / 15%), breast (17 cases / 13%) and lungs (15 cases / 12%). The median follow-up was 36 months (range: 3–242). 87 patients (69%) died by the study close, 32 (37%) of them due to metastatic disease from uveal melanoma, 41 (47%) due to another cancer.
Conclusions
The frequency of additional primary malignancies was higher in our cohort than reported by most of other groups. If there is a certain predisposition to a specific type of additional primary carcinoma in UM patients, the analysis of larger database is required.