Adherence with surveillance schedule in patients with invasive melanoma

Abstract

BackgroundSeven percent of patients develop melanoma recurrence after successful treatment, and 4–8% develop a second primary melanoma. This study aimed to assess how providing Survivorship Care Plans (SCPs) to patients may improve adherence to surveillance visits. MethodsAll patients treated for invasive melanoma at our institution between 8/1/2018-2/29/2020 were included in this retrospective chart review. SCPs were delivered in-person to patients and sent to primary care providers and dermatologists. Logistic regression was performed to assess influences on adherence. ResultsOf 142 patients, 73 (51.4%) received SCP regarding their follow-up care. Reception of SCP (p = 0.044) and shorter distance from clinic (p = 0.018) significantly improved rates of adherence. Seven patients developed melanoma recurrences, five were physician-detected. Three patients had primary site recurrence, six had lymph node recurrences, and three had distant recurrences. There were 5 second primaries, all physician-detected. ConclusionOur study is the first to investigate the impact of SCPs on patient adherence in melanoma survivors and the first to reveal a positive correlation between SCPs and adherence in any type of cancer. Melanoma survivors require close clinical follow-up, as demonstrated by our study finding that even with SCPs, most recurrences and all new primary melanomas were physician-detected.