Race, socioeconomic status impact uveal melanoma treatment

Patients with uveal melanoma who are nonwhite and of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be treated with primary enucleation, according to study results in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Patients who were socioeconomically disadvantaged had lower 5-year all-cause survival rates but there was no significant difference in disease-specific survival by race or socioeconomic status.

The authors concluded that this study “suggest[s] that nonwhite and socioeconomically disadvantaged patients with uveal melanoma are more likely to be treated with primary enucleation, although no such variation appears to exist in disease-specific survival. These differences reveal opportunities to address issues regarding treatment choice in uveal melanoma.”

Reference

Rajeshuni N, Zubair T, Ludwig CA, Moshfeghi DM, Mruthyunjaya P. Evaluation of racial, rthnic, and socioeconomic associations with treatment and survival in uveal melanoma, 2004-2014. JAMA Ophthalmol. Published online July 02, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2020.2254