Effect of Growth Hormone Therapy on Melanocytic Nevi in Survivors of Childhood Neoplasia

Abstract

An accelerated growth rate of acquired melanocytic nevi (AMN) following growth hormone therapy in children raises a concern about the potential risk for melanoma.¹Survivors of childhood malignancies may have increased numbers of AMN.²Because the number of AMN, rather than their growth rate, is a known risk factor for melanoma,³we assessed the AMN counts in a cross-sectional study of survivors of childhood neoplasia with secondary growth hormone deficiency (GHD). <h3>Subjects and Methods.</h3> The patient group (group 1) consisted of 20 children (13 males and 7 females) with secondary GHD due to chemotherapy or radiotherapy treated with recombinant human growth hormone (Protropin, Genentech Inc, South San Francisco, Calif) 0.3 mg/kg per week. Prior neoplasms included medulloblastoma (n=7), craniopharyngioma (n=5), histiocytosis × (n=3), astrocytoma (n=2), ependymoma (n=1), meningioma (n=1), and rhabdomyosarcoma (n=1). Chemotherapy was administered to 8 children and radiotherapy was administered to 17 children. There were