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Updated: Aug 2, 2025
Spatial and Temporal Control of Murine Melanoma Initiation from Mutant Melanocyte Stem Cells
Published on: June 7, 2019
Adherence with surveillance schedule in patients with invasive melanoma
Hemali Shah1, Paul Feustel1, Lindy Davis2
1Albany Medical College, 43 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, NY, 12208, USA.
Background:
Seven percent of patients develop melanoma recurrence after successful treatment, and 4-8% develop a second primary melanoma. This study aimed to assess how providing Survivorship Care Plans (SCPs) to patients may improve adherence to surveillance visits.
Methods:
All patients treated for invasive melanoma at our institution between 8/1/2018-2/29/2020 were included in this retrospective chart review. SCPs were delivered in-person to patients and sent to primary care providers and dermatologists. Logistic regression was performed to assess influences on adherence.
Results:
Of 142 patients, 73 (51.4%) received SCP regarding their follow-up care. Reception of SCP (p = 0.044) and shorter distance from clinic (p = 0.018) significantly improved rates of adherence. Seven patients developed melanoma recurrences, five were physician-detected. Three patients had primary site recurrence, six had lymph node recurrences, and three had distant recurrences. There were 5 second primaries, all physician-detected.
Conclusion:
Our study is the first to investigate the impact of SCPs on patient adherence in melanoma survivors and the first to reveal a positive correlation between SCPs and adherence in any type of cancer. Melanoma survivors require close clinical follow-up, as demonstrated by our study finding that even with SCPs, most recurrences and all new primary melanomas were physician-detected.
