King's College London

BACKGROUND: Malignant melanoma (MM) is one of the most common malignancies in young women. It remains debated whether a MM diagnosed during pregnancy or lactation has a worse prognosis.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine mortality in women with pregnancy-associated MM (PAMM) (diagnosed during pregnancy and up to 2-years postpartum).

METHODS: This was a population-based cohort study based on information retrieved from the Swedish Cancer and Multi-Generation Registers. Hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals adjusted for age, period, education, parity, and tumor location were estimated.

RESULTS: In total, 6857 women and girls aged 15 to 44 years with a diagnosis of cutaneous MM between 1963 and 2009 were identified. Of these, 1019 cases were classified as PAMM. The cause-specific mortality did not differ between PAMM and MM not diagnosed near childbirth (adjusted hazard ratio 1.09, 95% confidence interval 0.83-1.42).

LIMITATIONS: Information on stage at diagnosis was available only for a subset of patients

CONCLUSION: Overall, the cause-specific mortality in women and girls with PAMM did not differ from that in women and girls with non-PAMM. The current findings do not provide evidence of an adverse prognostic influence of pregnancy or a recent birth.