Global Incidence and Trend of Uveal Melanoma from 1943-2015: A Meta-Analysis

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults arising from uveal tissue melanocytes. Considering limited population based studies, we performed a meta-analysis of uveal melanoma incidence rate in worldwide.

For this meta-analysis, the electronic database of PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Google Scholar were utilized. Qualified Cohort studies and registry system databases were included in the study. Trend analysis and the estimation of incidences were reported. Thereafter subgroup analysis on gender and diagnostic tests were performed. Analyses were done using random effect models.

A total of 22 publications were eligible to include in the meta-analysis. The incidence rates of uveal melanoma were 5.74 (95%CI: 4.37-7.11) and 7.30 (95%CI: 6.36-8.24) in North America and Europe respectively. The analysis showed a significant decreasing trend in North America. It was expected that the risk of UM decreased approximately 0.09 (SE=0.04) per million persons per year. No significant trend was detected in Europe. There was not any significant difference between the incidence rate in male and female (6.58, 95%CI: 5.42-7.75 vs. 5.44, 95%CI: 4.40-6.48). In addition, the reported incidence rates in different diagnostic approaches were similar (6.61, 95%CI: 5.63-7.58 in clinical vs. 6.67, 95%CI: 5.83-7.42 in histological).

This analysis confirmed in recent decades, there has been a steady decline in the incidence in North America. However, in European countries where they still have the highest incidence worldwide, the trend was stable. It seems that international melanoma registration collaboration can conduct a unified, multicentral study to estimate the worldwide incidence of UM and impact of different factors on its rate.