By Allison Sit
A study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found men with melanoma – and particularly men with skin of color – are more likely to die than women with melanoma.
“We know that men may be less likely to seek medical care than women, so they can be diagnosed with melanoma at later stages,” said study co-author Ashley Wysong, MD, FAAD, founding chair of the dermatology department at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “However, even after accounting for later stages at diagnosis, men still have worse overall survival rates than women with melanoma, so we suspect that there are some unmeasured social, genetic, tumor-specific and potentially biological factors at play, such as hormones and the way the immune system responds to melanoma tumors.”
The analysis looked at 200,000 individuals diagnosed with melanoma as recorded in the National Cancer Database, which makes the study the largest of its kind on racial differences in men with melanoma.
Overall survival rates in men with melanoma were highest for White men (75 percent), followed by American Indian/Alaskan Native (69 percent), Asian (68 percent), Hispanic (66 percent), and Black men (52 percent). The study also showed that Black, Hispanic and Asian men are more likely to have melanoma diagnosed at an advanced stage when it is more difficult to treat.
The American Skin Association announced the recipients of its Research Scholar Awards:
- Clinton Enos, MD, of Eastern Virginia Medical School, received the Arcutis Biotherapeutics Research Scholar Award for Psoriasis.
- Joy Wan, MD, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, received the ASA Research Scholar Award for Atopic Dermatitis.
- Patrick Brunner, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Kingsley Essien, PhD, from the UMass Chan School of Medicine, were each honored with the Calder Research Scholar Award for Vitiligo and Pigment Cell Disorders.
- Nicholas Gulati, MD, PhD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is continuing his research with the prestigious Daneen and Charles Stiefel Investigative Scientist Award for Melanoma Research.
The ASA and its affiliates have funded more than $50 million in grants in the past 36 years.
The organization’s primary goal is to enhance treatments and continue working towards cures for melanoma, vitiligo, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and other skin diseases.
“Dermatological research remains one of the most underfunded areas of medicine even though skin is our largest and perhaps most exposed organ,” said Howard P. Milstein, chairman of ASA. “ASA’s support will improve the chances of finding long sought-after cures and bringing hope to the millions suffering from devastating skin cancer and other skin diseases.”
Dermatologists remember Dr. Charles Crutchfield III, who passed away after a battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Dr. Crutchfield was a clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota Medical School and in private practice in Eagan, Minn. He was one of the first dermatologists to tailor treatments for patients with skin of color, and was an advocate for health education.
“He was always advancing knowledge, always advancing research and always advancing education,” said Maria Hordinsky, MD, professor and chair of the University of Minnesota Department of Dermatology. “That was something innate in him, to always be doing the right thing.”
