Incidence of uveal melanoma in the United States: 1973-1997
PURPOSE: To determine the incidence of primary uveal melanoma in the United States over a 25-year period from 1973 to 1997.
DESIGN: Systematic review of existing databases.
PARTICIPANTS: Two thousand four hundred ninety-three patients with primary uveal melanoma (International Classification of Oncology [ICDO-2] codes C69.3 [choroid melanoma] and C69.4 [ciliary body and iris]) derived from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program database in the United States from 1973 to 1997.
METHODS: The significance of trend in age-adjusted incidence rate was determined using chi-square test, and 95% confidence intervals were calculated.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The age-adjusted incidence rate.
RESULTS: There was a total of 2493 cases of uveal melanoma, representing 2.9% of all recorded cases of melanoma. Almost all cases (99.4%) were reported by the hospitals, and histopathologic confirmation was available in 81.3% of cases. The mean age-adjusted incidence of uveal melanoma in the United States was 4.3 per million (4.1-4.5; 95% confidence interval [CI]). Most cases (97.8%) occurred in the white population. There was significant variation of incidence between genders (males, 4.9 [4.6-5.2] 95% CI interval; females, 3.7 [3.5-3.9] 95% CI interval). There was no significant variation of incidence by the geographic location of the registry and over the entire period of observation (chi-square test).
CONCLUSIONS: The mean age-adjusted incidence of uveal melanoma (4.3 per million) in the United States is similar to that reported from European countries. The age-adjusted incidence rate of uveal melanoma has remained stable for the past 25 years.
Full Text Links
Find Full Text Links for this Article
You are not logged in. Sign Up or Log In to join the discussion.