An analysis of the National Cancer Database (NCDB): Immunotherapy and survival in stage III melanoma.

159Background: High dose Interferon (IFN) was the standard adjuvant treatment used for stage III melanoma between 2004-2010. To our knowledge, this is the largest study using the NCDB to determine the impact of immunotherapy used prior to 2011 in stage III melanoma. Methods: We identified 19,864 patients with stage III melanoma between 2004-2010. Among these, 5,406 of them received immunotherapy. Chi-square analysis was used to determine demographic differences between those with versus without immunotherapy. Between-therapy survival differences were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and associated log-rank tests; Tukey-Kramer adjusted p < 0.05 indicated statistical significance. Results: Patients who received immunotherapy had a mean survival of 89.8 months while those who did not had a mean survival of 71 months. The percentage of patients alive at 5 and 10 years was 62% and 52% (among those who received immunotherapy) compared to 46% and 32% (among those who did not receive immunotherapy) respective...