Although the higher risk of melanoma for CLL patients had been known, a full analysis of the relationship has never been done before researchers led by Clive Zent, MD of the Wilmot cancer Institute reported findings in the August 2018 journal Leukemia Research.
As a result of his analysis, Dr. Zent, considered and international expert in CLL, is calling for all clinical teams treating CLL patients to actively monitor for melanoma as part of routine care.
"We do not for sure know why CLL patients are more susceptible to melanoma, but the most likely cause is a suppressed immune system," said Zent in a press release. Zent is a professor of Hematology/Oncology and Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Cancer and Wilmot. "Normally, in people with healthy immune systems, malignant skin cells might be detected and destroyed before they become a problem. But in CLL patients, failure of this control system increases the rate at which cancer cells can grow into tumors, and also the likelihood that they will become invasive or spread to distant sites."
In the study of 470 people with CLL treated at the Wilmot Center, 22 later developed melanoma, a rate that is more than 600 percent higher than would be expected in a similar group of people in the general population. Of the 22 diagnosed with skin cancer, 15 were detected through monitoring.
CLL is the most common type of leukemia affecting 140,000 people living with the disease currently in the US. It is a cancer of the immune system, which results in an impaired immune function.
Source: University of Rochester Medical Center. "Melanoma linked with CLL, close monitoring recommended." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 August 2018.
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