Prognostic biomarkers derived from complete blood count (CBC) have received marked interest as an indirect measure of the inflammatory pressure in cancers such as metastatic melanoma. Here, we evaluated the novel pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV) and the frequently assessed neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in a large cohort of patients with cutaneous melanoma (CM) without distant metastases (stages I to III). PIV and NLR were calculated at CM diagnosis. Healthy controls were also included. We used the Kaplan–Meier method to estimate crude survival probabilities and used Cox proportional hazards regression for multiple adjustment of hazard ratios. We observed that higher PIV (HR: 1.72, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.58 and HR: 1.696, 95% CI 1.029 to 2.795, respectively) and NLR (HR: 1.70, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.62) values were associated with CM relapse and CM-specific death in the crude analysis. However, when adjusting for potential confounders, in particular age and tumor thickness, the total effect of PIV and NLR on CM-relapse-free (HR: 1.28, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.98 and HR: 1.26, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.98, respectively) and CM-specific survival (HR: 1.36, 95% CI 0.80 to 2.30 and HR: 1.37, 95% CI 0.80 to 2.33, respectively) was substantially reduced. However, both PIV and NLR were positively correlated with age and tumor thickness, which are important independent predictors for CM relapse and CM-specific death. In conclusion, in stage I to III CM patients PIV as well as NLR appear to be confounded by age and tumor thickness and probably have no potential to further improve the prediction of survival of stage I to III CM patients beyond standard prognostic factors.

Complete lymph node dissection (CLND) following positive sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy has been the standard of care for decades. We aimed to study melanoma patients with an emphasis on the outcome of patients with versus without CLND following positive SLN biopsy. SLN-positive patients with or without CLND were compared regarding important prognostic clinical and histological characteristics. Ten-year and 20-year survival curves for melanoma relapse and melanoma-specific survival (MSS) were determined by the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional-hazards regression. We studied 258 patients who had micrometastases in their SLN biopsy. CLND was performed in 209 of 258 patients (81%). Hence, in 49 of 258 patients (19%) with SLN micrometastases, CLND was not performed. These patients did not significantly (p > 0.05) differ from patients with CLND in regard to age, gender, tumor thickness, tumor ulceration, capsule infiltration of SLN, or invasion level of SLN. On 10-year analysis, we did not observe a significantly increased risk for melanoma relapse and worse in MSS in patients who did not undergo CLND (hazard ratio: 1.1 (95% CI 0.67 to 1.7) and 1.1 (95% CI 0.67 to 1.9), respectively). On 20-year survival analysis, we confirmed that the risk of melanoma relapse and impaired MSS does not significantly increase in patients without CLND (hazard ratio: 1.2 (95% CI 0.8 to 1.9) and 1.3 (95% CI 0.8 to 2.3), respectively). On 10-year as well as 20-year multivariable follow-up analysis (including several important prognostic factors), Cox proportional-hazards regression showed that the status of CLND did not remain in the regression model (p > 0.1). Our 10-year data give conclusive support to previous investigations indicating that waiving CLND in patients with SLN micrometastases does not affect MSS. More importantly, our long-term follow-up data confirm for the first time the 10-year survival data of previous investigations.