Differences in Uveal Melanoma Age-Standardized Incidence Rates in Two Eastern States of Australia Are Driven by Differences in Rurality and Ultraviolet Radiation

Melissa Chalada; Charmaine A Ramlogan-Steel; Bijay P Dhungel; Amanda Y Goh; Samuel Gardiner; Christopher J Layton; Jason C Steel

doi:10.3390/cancers13235894

Differences in Uveal Melanoma Age-Standardized Incidence Rates in Two Eastern States of Australia Are Driven by Differences in Rurality and Ultraviolet Radiation

Cancers (Basel). 2021 Nov 23;13(23):5894. doi: 10.3390/cancers13235894.

Authors

Melissa Chalada¹, Charmaine A Ramlogan-Steel¹, Bijay P Dhungel^{2

3}, Amanda Y Goh⁴, Samuel Gardiner⁵, Christopher J Layton^{1

4

6}, Jason C Steel¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD 4701, Australia.
² Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program Centenary Institute, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
³ Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, Greenslopes Clinical School, The University of Queensland, Greenslopes, QLD 4120, Australia.
⁵ Clinical Research Centre, Sydney Local Health District, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
⁶ LVF Ophthalmology Research Centre, Translational Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4102, Australia.

Abstract

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the second-most-common melanoma in humans and has a high age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) in Australia. Regional patterns of UM ASRs in Australia are unknown. The aim of this study was to determine and compare UM ASRs in two geographically disparate eastern states, Queensland (QLD) and Victoria (VIC), by using cancer registry data that was obtained from 2001 to 2013. World-standardized UM ASRs and incidence-rate ratios (IRRs) were calculated. Higher UM ASR was also observed in anterior UM compared to posterior UM ASR. UM ASR remained unchanged from 2001 to 2013 in QLD but decreased in VIC. A south-to-north latitude trend in UM ASR along the east of Australia is weakly evident, and rural populations have higher UM ASRs than major city populations in both states. Differences in ultraviolent radiation (UVR) susceptibility, indigenous populations, social behaviours, chemical exposure, and socioeconomic status could all be contributing to differences in UM rates between QLD and VIC and between rural compared to major city areas. It is possible that a minority of cases in QLD and VIC might be prevented by sun-protective behaviours. This is important, because these findings suggest that QLD, which is already known to have one of the highest cutaneous melanoma (CM) ASRs in the world, also has one of the highest UM ASRs.

Keywords: Australia; Queensland; Victoria; cutaneous melanoma; ultraviolet radiation; uveal melanoma.