Post-hoc analysis of the association of smoking status with survival of patients with early-stage melanoma

While smoking is associated with a decreased incidence or cutaneous melanoma, the association of smoking with melanoma progression and death is not well defined. Post-hoc analysis of two observational studies (MSLT-I and MSLT-II) found that among patients with stage I or II clinically node-negative cutaneous melanoma, current smoking was associated with shorter melanoma-specific survival (versus never smokers HR 1.48; p<0.001) while former smoking was not. Smoking 20 cigarettes or more per day was associated with a doubled risk of death due to melanoma in patients with pathologic node-negative melanoma (HR 2.06; pxtagstartz0.001). The authors conclude that these findings suggest that smoking at the time of melanoma diagnosis is associated with increased risk of melanoma-specific mortality.