Nodal Metastases in Stage 3 Head and Neck Melanoma: Patterns of Metastases and Patterns of Failure.

OBJECTIVE: Stage 3 patients with clinically positive nodal metastasis are treated with therapeutic neck dissection and adjuvant systemic therapy. The aim of our study was to examined the predictability of pre-operative CT as a nodal drainage assessment tool. METHODS: Retrospective review of all patients with clinically positive head and neck cutaneous melanoma between 2010 and 2019. Clinical disease was diagnosed as radiological suspicious, biopsy-proven node. A pre-operative CT evaluation for nodal metastasis was compared to pathology report. RESULTS: A total of 53 patients were included. Forty patients (75.5%) were males with a mean age of 59 (SD 15.52). The majority of patients (26.4%) had an unknown primary site. The most common sites for primary were the cheek in eight patients (15.1%) followed by forehead (9.4%) and lateral neck (9.4%). Preoperative CT predicted nodal disease in 84.6% of cases. The primary region that mainly failed from the previously described clinical prediction was the upper anterior neck with 83.3% parotid involvement. A total of 10 patients (18.9%) were diagnosis with non-clinical nodes on pathology with a median non-clinical node of 1 (range 1-2). Of them, 9 (90%) were in the same clinical levels detected by CT. Pre-operative CT was associated with a neck level accuracy of 98.1%. CONCLUSION: Stage 3 head and neck melanoma with clinically positive nodal metastasis that are eligible for an adjuvant systemic treatment, may benefit from a highly selective neck dissection according to their pre-operative imaging studies. This should be further evaluated in a large-scale clinical trial. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Laryngoscope, 2024.

The Role of Adjuvant Radiotherapy for the Treatment of Resected High-Risk Stage III Cutaneous Melanoma in the Era of Modern Systemic Therapies.

Modern adjuvant systemic therapies (STs) have revolutionized the management of stage III melanoma. Currently, the role of adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) remains unclear. In this single-center retrospective study, patients with clinically detectable stage III melanoma with high-risk features for lymph node basin (LNB) recurrence and whose tumors were fully resected with complete lymphadenectomy (CLD) between 2010 and 2019 were assessed. We determined the cumulative incidence (CIF) of LNB recurrence and any disease recurrence or progression using competing risk analysis. A total of 108 patients were identified; the median age was 59 years (24-92), and 74 (69%) were men. A total of 51 (42%) received adjuvant RT, 22 (20%) received adjuvant ST, and 35 (32%) received no adjuvant therapy. The advent of ST changed clinical practice, with a significant increase in the use of adjuvant ST and a decrease in the use of RT when comparing practice patterns before and after 2015 (p < 0.001). The 3-year CIF of LNB recurrence was similar in patients treated with adjuvant RT (6.3%) and adjuvant ST (9.8%). The 3-year CIF of any disease recurrence or progression was lower in patients receiving adjuvant ST (24%) compared to those receiving adjuvant RT (52%) or no adjuvant therapy (55%, p = 0.06). Three-year overall survival (OS) was not significantly different in patients treated with ST compared to those not treated with any ST (p = 0.118). Despite ST replacing RT as the dominant adjuvant treatment modality, this change in practice has not resulted in increased LNB recurrence for patients at high risk of LNB recurrence following CLD.