The impact of hypertension on mortality in melanoma patients: A matched cohort analysis

Summary: Abstract Body: There is limited research on the effect of comorbidities in patients with melanoma. Here, we studied melanoma confounded with hypertension affects mortality rates. Data from the National Institute of Health’s AllofUs database was extracted for patients with a malignant melanoma diagnosis. Two groups were then identified: a "treatment" group consisting of patients with melanoma and hypertension, and a "control" group consisting of patients with melanoma but without hypertension. Demographic data and mortality status were collected for all patients. Each “treatment” group patient was then matched to two “control” group patients on the basis of ethnicity, sex, and race. To assess the quality of the matching, standard deviation of the means (SDMs) for all covariates were found, and matching was considered successful if all SDMs were <0.1. Using the matched dataset, 1886 patients were included and mortality rates between the “treatment” and “control” groups were found to be 6.7% and 1.6% respectively. A Chi-squared test was performed and a p-value of <1e-8 was obtained. These results suggest that hypertension may play a role in influencing the course of progression of melanoma and/or compound the severity of the cancer. Additionally, these results underscore the importance of investigating how hypertension may influence responses to melanoma treatments, potentially impacting mortality rates. Ultimately, the strong correlation between hypertension and increased mortality rates in melanoma emphasizes the necessity for clinicians to consider comorbidities when developing treatment plans for melanoma. Further studies exploring the impact of comorbidities on melanoma outcomes are warranted, specifically focusing on the impact they may have on mortality rates and how they may exacerbate health disparities among underserved populations. Eric Yang¹, Ashna Khare², Kara Hurley², John Griswold² 1. University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States. 2. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, United States. Clinical Research: Epidemiology and Observational Research