Elsevier

American Journal of Ophthalmology

Volume 140, Issue 4, October 2005, Pages 612.e1-612.e8
American Journal of Ophthalmology

Original article
Population-Based Incidence of Uveal Melanoma in Various Races and Ethnic Groups

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2005.05.034Get rights and content

Purpose

To investigate racial/ethnic differences in the development of uveal malignant melanoma in a large population-based study.

Design

Observational cross-sectional study.

Methods

With the 1992 to 2000 data that was provided by the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, we calculated age-adjusted incidence rates of uveal melanoma in various racial/ethnic groups (black, Asian and Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white). In addition, we calculated the standard incidence ratio (risk ratio) and 95% confidence interval to describe the differences within these racial/ethnic groups.

Results

From 1992 to 2000, there were a total of 1352 uveal melanomas that were diagnosed in 11 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries with known racial/ethnic groups. The annual age-adjusted incidence (per million population) of uveal melanoma was 0.31 (black), 0.38 (Asian), 1.67 (Hispanic), and 6.02 (non-Hispanic white). The difference in the incidence of uveal melanoma between each racial/ethnic group was highly statistically significant, with the exception of the black versus the Asian population in which there was no statistically significant difference.

Conclusion

The relative risk of uveal melanoma was 1.2 for Asian and Pacific Islander patients, 5.4 for Hispanic patients, and 19.2 for non-Hispanic white patients as compared with the black patients. If the non-Hispanic white population and the Hispanic population were combined, then the overall white:black ratio was 18:1.

Section snippets

Material and methods

Ocular melanoma incidence rates were obtained from population-based data that were collected by the SEER Program of the National Cancer Institute, which were released in April 2002 and based on a November 2001 submission. Data consisted of cancer cases that were reported on different races and were diagnosed from 1992 to 2000 among residents of 11 geographic areas, which included Atlanta, Georgia; Connecticut; Detroit, Michigan; Hawaii; Iowa; New Mexico; San Francisco-Oakland, California;

Results

Table 1 shows age-adjusted incidence rates and rate ratios for uveal melanoma by racial/ethnic groups in 11 SEER registries from 1992 to 2000. Ninety-five percent of patients were non-Hispanic white; 3.8% were Hispanic; 0.7% were Asian/Pacific Islander, and 0.7% were black. No cases of uveal melanoma were reported in the American Indian group. The age-adjusted incidence of uveal melanoma ranged from 0.31 to 6.37 per 100,000 in the different racial/ethnic groups. When compared with the black

Discussion

Uveal malignant melanoma is relatively rare in the black population. In 1962, Hogan and Zimmerman5 reported that the ratio of uveal melanoma in white vs non-white groups was 250:1. Paul, Parnell and Franker4 reviewed all of the intraocular melanoma cases at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology from 1930 to 1961 and found only 24 cases of malignant melanoma in the black patients. They estimated the ratio of uveal melanoma in the black:white population to be 1:165. In 1983, Shields and Shields

Dan-Ning Hu, MD, graduated from the Shanghai First Medical College and was a fellow at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute. He has been the Director of Tissue Culture Center at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and Professor of Ophthalmology, New York Medical College since 1990. His main interests are cell culture, cell transplantation, pigment cell research, ophthalmic genetics, and myopia. He has published 341 papers and contributed to the publication of 16 books.

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    • Cited by (0)

    Dan-Ning Hu, MD, graduated from the Shanghai First Medical College and was a fellow at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute. He has been the Director of Tissue Culture Center at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and Professor of Ophthalmology, New York Medical College since 1990. His main interests are cell culture, cell transplantation, pigment cell research, ophthalmic genetics, and myopia. He has published 341 papers and contributed to the publication of 16 books.

    Guo-Pei Yu, MD, MPH, currently serves as Chief Epidemiologist and Biostatistician of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. His main interests are to study the etiology and prevention of various diseases and to evaluate therapeutic effectiveness. He graduated from Shanghai First Medical College where he was a Professor of Epidemiology. Dr. Yu was a research fellow in Harvard School of Public Health.

    Supported by the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary Pathology Research Fund, the Department of Ophthalmology Research Fund (design and conduct of the study and preparation of the manuscript), and The EyeCare Foundation (review of the manuscript).

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