Acral lentiginous melanoma incidence by sex, race, ethnicity, and stage in the United States, 2010-2019.

INTRODUCTION: Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is a rare type of melanoma associated with delayed diagnosis and poor survival rates. This study examines ALM incidence rates in comparison to all other melanoma types. METHODS: We used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Program of Cancer Registries and the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, which together cover 99% of the US population. We calculated age-adjusted rates and rate ratios for ALM and all other malignant melanomas by sex, race and ethnicity, stage, and year of diagnosis (2010-2019). RESULTS: ALM incidence rates were significantly lower among non-Hispanic Black persons (1.8 per 1,000,000); non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander (API) persons (1.7 per 1,000,000); and Hispanic Black, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), and API persons (1.5 per 1,000,000) compared to non-Hispanic White persons (2.3 per 1,000,000). Rates were significantly higher among Hispanic White persons (2.8 per 1,000,000) compared to non-Hispanic White persons. For all other melanoma types, incidence rates were significantly higher among non-Hispanic White persons compared to persons in each of the other racial and ethnic categories. The percentage of melanomas that were ALM ranged from 0.8% among non-Hispanic White persons to 19.1% among Hispanic Black, AI/AN, and API persons. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that awareness of the potential for ALM in patients of all races and ethnicities could be balanced with an understanding of the rarity of the disease and the potential for the development of other melanoma types in racial and ethnic minority groups.

Digital Health Applications in Oncology: An Opportunity to Seize.

Digital health advances have transformed many clinical areas including psychiatric and cardiovascular care. However, digital health innovation is relatively nascent in cancer care, which represents the fastest growing area of health-care spending. Opportunities for digital health innovation in oncology include patient-facing technologies that improve patient experience, safety, and patient-clinician interactions; clinician-facing technologies that improve their ability to diagnose pathology and predict adverse events; and quality of care and research infrastructure to improve clinical workflows, documentation, decision support, and clinical trial monitoring. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated shifts of care to the home and community dramatically accelerated the integration of digital health technologies into virtually every aspect of oncology care. However, the pandemic has also exposed potential flaws in the digital health ecosystem, namely in clinical integration strategies; data access, quality, and security; and regulatory oversight and reimbursement for digital health technologies. Stemming from the proceedings of a 2020 workshop convened by the National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, this article summarizes the current state of digital health technologies in medical practice and strategies to improve clinical utility and integration. These recommendations, with calls to action for clinicians, health systems, technology innovators, and policy makers, will facilitate efficient yet safe integration of digital health technologies into cancer care.

Policies and Practices to Address Cancer's Long-Term Adverse Consequences.

As cancer detection and treatment improve, the number of long-term survivors will continue to grow, as will the need to improve their survivorship experience and health outcomes. We need to better understand cancer and its treatment's short- and long-term adverse consequences and to prevent, detect, and treat these consequences effectively. Delivering care through a collaborative care model; standardizing information offered to and collected from patients; standardizing approaches to documenting, treating, and reducing adverse effects; and creating a data infrastructure to make population-based information widely available are all actions that can improve survivors' outcomes. National policies that address gaps in insurance coverage, the cost and value of treatment and survivorship care, and worker benefits such as paid sick leave can also concurrently reduce cancer burden. The National Cancer Policy Forum and the Forum on Aging, Disability, and Independence at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine sponsored a virtual workshop on "Addressing the Adverse Consequences of Cancer Treatment," November 9-10, 2020, to examine long-term adverse consequences of cancer treatment and to identify practices and policies to reduce treatment's negative impact on survivors. This commentary discusses high-priority issues raised during the workshop and offers a path forward.

Cutaneous melanomas attributable to ultraviolet radiation exposure by state.

Information on cutaneous melanoma (melanoma) burden attributable to ultraviolet (UV) radiation by state could inform state and local public health policies to mitigate the burden. We estimated numbers, proportions and age-standardized incidence rates of malignant melanomas attributable to UV radiation in each US state by calculating the difference between observed melanomas during 2011-2015 and expected cases based on historically low incidence rates among whites in Connecticut from 1942 to 1954. The low melanoma burden in Connecticut during this period likely reflected UV exposure accumulated in the 1930s or earlier, when exposure was likely minimized by clothing style and limited recreational exposure. The estimated number of melanoma cases attributable to UV exposure during 2011-2015 in the United States was 338,701, or 91.0% of the total cases (372,335); 94.3% (319,412) of UV-attributable cases occurred in non-Hispanic whites. By state, the attributable proportion among non-Hispanic whites ranged from 87.6% in the District of Columbia to 97.3% in Hawaii. The attributable age-standardized rate (per 100,000) among non-Hispanic whites ranged from 15.1 (95% CI, 13.4-16.7) in Alaska to 65.1 (95% CI, 61.4-68.9) in Hawaii and was ≥23.3 in half of states. Considerable proportions and incidence rates of melanoma attributable to UV radiation in all states underscores the need for broad implementation or enforcement of preventive measures across states, with priority for states with higher burden.

The American Cancer Society 2035 challenge goal on cancer mortality reduction.

A summary evaluation of the 2015 American Cancer Society (ACS) challenge goal showed that overall US mortality from all cancers combined declined 26% over the period from 1990 to 2015. Recent research suggests that US cancer mortality can still be lowered considerably by applying known interventions broadly and equitably. The ACS Board of Directors, therefore, commissioned ACS researchers to determine challenge goals for reductions in cancer mortality by 2035. A statistical model was used to estimate the average annual percent decline in overall cancer death rates among the US general population and among college-educated Americans during the most recent period. Then, the average annual percent decline in the overall cancer death rates of college graduates was applied to the death rates in the general population to project future rates in the United States beginning in 2020. If overall cancer death rates from 2020 through 2035 nationally decline at the pace of those of college graduates, then death rates in 2035 in the United States will drop by 38.3% from the 2015 level and by 54.4% from the 1990 level. On the basis of these results, the ACS 2035 challenge goal was set as a 40% reduction from the 2015 level. Achieving this goal could lead to approximately 1.3 million fewer cancer deaths than would have occurred from 2020 through 2035 and 122,500 fewer cancer deaths in 2035 alone. The results also show that reducing the prevalence of risk factors and achieving optimal adherence to evidence-based screening guidelines by 2025 could lead to a 33.5% reduction in the overall cancer death rate by 2035, attaining 85% of the challenge goal.

The promise of Immuno-oncology: implications for defining the value of cancer treatment.

The rapid development of immuno-oncology (I-O) therapies for multiple types of cancer has transformed the cancer treatment landscape and brightened the long-term outlook for many patients with advanced cancer. Responding to ongoing efforts to generate value assessments for novel therapies, multiple stakeholders have been considering the question of "What makes I-O transformative?" Evaluating the distinct features and attributes of these therapies, and better characterizing how patients experience them, will inform such assessments. This paper defines ways in which treatment with I-O is different from other therapies. It also proposes key aspects and attributes of I-O therapies that should be considered in any assessment of their value and seeks to address evidence gaps in existing value frameworks given the unique properties of patient outcomes with I-O therapy. The paper concludes with a "data needs catalogue" (DNC) predicated on the belief that multiple key, unique elements that are necessary to fully characterize the value of I-O therapies are not routinely or robustly measured in current clinical practice or reimbursement databases and are infrequently captured in existing research studies. A better characterization of the benefit of I-O treatment will allow a more thorough assessment of its benefits and provide a template for the design and prioritization of future clinical trials and a roadmap for healthcare insurers to optimize coverage for patients with cancers eligible for I-O therapy.

Turning the tide against cancer through sustained medical innovation: the pathway to progress.

An ever-expanding understanding of the molecular basis of the more than 200 unique diseases collectively called cancer, combined with efforts to apply these insights to clinical care, is forming the foundation of an era of personalized medicine that promises to improve cancer treatment. At the same time, these extraordinary opportunities are occurring in an environment of intense pressure to contain rising healthcare costs. This environment presents a challenge to oncology research and clinical care, because both are becoming progressively more complex and expensive, and because the current tools to measure the cost and value of advances in care (e.g., comparative effectiveness research, cost-effectiveness analysis, and health technology assessments) are not optimized for an ecosystem moving toward personalized, patient-centered care. Reconciling this tension will be essential to maintaining progress in a cost-constrained environment, especially because emerging innovations in science (e.g., increasing identification of molecular biomarkers) and in clinical process (implementation of a learning healthcare system) hold potential to dramatically improve patient care, and may ultimately help address the burden of rising costs. For example, the rapid pace of innovation taking place within oncology calls for increased capability to integrate clinical research and care to enable continuous learning, so that lessons learned from each patient treated can inform clinical decision making for the next patient. Recognizing the need to define the policies required for sustained innovation in cancer research and care in an era of cost containment, the stakeholder community must engage in an ongoing dialogue and identify areas for collaboration. This article reflects and seeks to amplify the ongoing robust discussion and diverse perspectives brought to this issue by multiple stakeholders within the cancer community, and to consider how to frame the research and regulatory policies necessary to sustain progress against cancer in an environment of constrained resources.

A profile of skin cancer prevention media coverage in 2009.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the coverage of skin cancer prevention messages in news print media. OBJECTIVE: To perform a content analysis of mass-media articles from newspaper and magazines pertaining to skin cancer prevention in 4 specific months (January, May, July, and October) in 2009 and assess the extent of coverage of skin cancer prevention messages. METHODS: We conducted a content analysis of 144 articles related to skin cancer prevention extracted from strategic media scans of selected months in 2009. We sought to provide the frequency of mass-media content categorized by theme and focus related to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) protection and risk-reducing behaviors. RESULTS: The audience for the vast majority (78%) of the articles was the general public. Among the assessed articles, more were published in May (49%) and July (35%) than in the remaining other months. The two most frequent themes focused on 'protection of the skin' (32%) and on 'skin cancer prevention' (23%) via risk reduction behavioral practices. Analysis of message content regarding UVR reduction practices showed that many mentioned 'use of sunscreen' (65% of messages) with the least-often mentioned behaviors being 'seek shade' (6.3%) and 'do not burn' (1.4%). In addition, a quarter of the articles lacked any content mentioning recommended UVR reduction behaviors. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited to the narrow scope of articles published in 2009 and for selected months. CONCLUSIONS: This profile of mass-media content regarding skin cancer prevention revealed gaps in coverage of UVR reduction behaviors with possible room for improvement. Strategies for improving and comprehensiveness of coverage of recommended skin cancer prevention behaviors in the media are discussed.