The effectiveness of radiotherapy in the treatment of head and neck mucosal melanoma: Systematic review and meta‐analysis

Introduction Mucosal melanoma (MM) is a rare condition with a poor prognosis. Surgery is the corner stone of treatment, however, radiotherapy has been commonly employed as a treatment strategy and recent studies suggesting that survival outcomes may be improving are emerging. Methods A systematic re...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Head & neck 2021-01, Vol.43 (1), p.323-333
Main Authors: Grant‐Freemantle, Marc C., Lane O'Neill, Billy, Clover, Anthony James P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
endoscopic resection
Head & neck cancer
Head and neck
laryngeal melanoma
Medical prognosis
Melanoma
Meta-analysis
Metastases
Metastasis
Mucosa
mucosal melanoma
oral melanoma
Radiation therapy
radiotherapy
sinonasal melanoma
Surgery
Survival
Systematic review
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Introduction Mucosal melanoma (MM) is a rare condition with a poor prognosis. Surgery is the corner stone of treatment, however, radiotherapy has been commonly employed as a treatment strategy and recent studies suggesting that survival outcomes may be improving are emerging. Methods A systematic review and meta‐analysis comparing risk ratios of radiotherapy and surgery and radiotherapy (SRT) with surgery for 5‐year overall survival, local recurrence and distant metastasis in head and neck mucosal melanoma (HNMM). Results SRT has a lower risk of death compared to surgery [RR 0.93 [95% CI = 0.87, 0.98] (P = .01)] and a reduced risk of local recurrence [RR 0.63 [95% CI = 0.48, 0.82] (P = .005)]. SRT has no effect on distant metastasis. Radiotherapy has worse survival when compared to surgery [RR 1.2 [95% CI = 1.03, 1.33] (P = .0006)]. Conclusions SRT confers a moderate survival advantage in HNMM compared to surgery. This is most likely secondary to reduced local recurrence.
ISSN:1043-3074
1097-0347
DOI:10.1002/hed.26470