Survival and Prognosis for Patients with Rectal Melanomas in the United States: A SEER-Based Study

Abstract

Purpose

Limited attention was paid to focus on rectal melanomas (RM). This study aimed to evaluate the survival rate and prognostic factors of RM.

Methods

The data for patients with RM from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database were used to analyze tumor survival. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were employed to estimate cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS). A nomogram was established based on the risk factors of survival by the forest plot for multivariate Cox regression analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and calibration curve were conducted for validation.

Results

A total of 187 patients with RM were selected to perform survival analyses. The median survival time of OS was 12 months (range: 0-146 months), and the median survival time of CSS was 12 months (range: 0-74 months). Patients’ age, tumor size, stage, the number of nodes examined, surgery, and radiation were identified as prognostic indicators for CSS by the forest plot for multivariate Cox regression analysis. The nomogram was validated as a reliable model for CSS.

Conclusion

Clinicopathologic relevance with tumor prognosis was confirmed in this study. Our nomogram can provide a relatively accurate prediction of the survival rate of patients with RM.

Keywords:

• rectal melanomas
• survival
• prognosis
• nomogram
• SEER

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

Fan Zhang, Shan Tong and Runda Wu were responsible for the design of the study, statistical analysis, and drafting and revising of the manuscript; Yao Peng, Boqi Xu, and Zhongqi Mao provided critical comments and review of the manuscript; Fan Zhang, Shan Tong, Zhongqi Mao, and Runda Wu supervised the study and revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Consent for publication

All patients consented to the publication of the results of this study.

Availability of data and materials

Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. This data can be found here: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (https://seer.cancer.gov/).