Prognostic Biomarkers of Survival in Ocular Melanoma

To explore the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) database in a longitudinal study to determine the factors associated with the risk of death in ocular melanoma.

Patients with a primary diagnosis of ocular melanoma from the SEER database between 1975 and 2022 were included. Chi-square analysis and independent samples t test were performed. The Kaplan-Meier estimate was also run to determine survival months' variability by primary site.

The 2,917 included patients were categorized as "died of ocular melanoma" or "alive or dead of other causes." Age was higher in patients who died from ocular melanoma (60.7 years ±12) compared to those alive or dead of another cause (57.9 years ±13.5; p < 0.001; OR 0.984; 0.977, 0.992; p < 0.001). The primary site of melanoma was also statistically significantly different between groups; conjunctiva (81.7%) and cornea (81.3%) had the highest survival rate, while the lacrimal gland and an overlapping lesion of the eye and adnexa had the highest mortality rates (100% and 73%, respectively; p < 0.001). Survival analysis with Kaplan-Meier estimate showed lacrimal gland and overlapping lesions of eye and adnexa differed in mean months of survival after diagnosis (54 months and 100.8 months, respectively) compared to conjunctiva and ciliary body (264.5 months and 237.5 months, respectively; p < 0.001).

Age and primary site were associated with mortality from ocular melanoma. Overlapping lesions of the eye and adnexa, unspecified ocular site, and choroid were associated with the highest mortality risk from this melanoma.