Background: Oncology trends are based on data coming from different countries and ocular melanoma is the most common primary eye cancer in adults.
Objectives: To investigate the incidence and characteristics of ocular melanoma in the overall population of Poland.
Material and methods: The retrospective survey of both the National Cancer Registry (NCR) and National Health Fund (NHF) databases was performed to identify all ocular melanoma cases in Poland in 2010-2017.
Results: The mean incidence of ocular melanoma was 8.76/1,000,000 person-years; the lowest incidence was observed in the 19-29 age group (1.17/1,000,000 person-years) and the highest in the group over 70 (22.88/1,000,000 person-years). There were no statistically significant trends in the incidence rates over the study period. The overall incidences of uveal, eyelid and conjunctival melanoma were 6.67/1,000,000, 0.47/1,000,000 and 0.28/1,000,000 person-years, respectively. The 5-year overall survival (OS) was 60.76%; the higher risk of death was associated with male sex (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.2959), older age at diagnosis (HR = 1.0379), chemotherapy treatment (HR = 1.6774), metastasis (HR = 1.5716), loco-regional hyperplasia (HR = 1.5936), and systemic tumor spread (HR = 3.9872), compared to the carcinoma in situ. The risk of death was reduced by radiotherapy treatment (HR = 0.6645).
Conclusions: The incidence rate of ocular melanoma in Poland is in the middle of the range worldwide, and the 5-year OS is relatively low.
Keywords: ocular melanoma; patient survival; radiotherapy.