[Adjuvant therapy of primary malignant melanoma with natural human interferon-beta. Significant survival advantage in 96 treated patients in comparison with 288 untreated symptomatic controls].

In the dermatological department of Dortmund's Municipal Medical Centre, between May 1986 and April 1991 a total of 105 patients with primary malignant melanoma (stage I) underwent adjuvant treatment with 5 million IU natural interferon beta as a 30-min i.v. infusion three times weekly for 6 months. During follow-up the patients were examined at short intervals and all recurrences and disease-related cases of death were documented up to September 1992. We evaluated the outcome of patients treated with interferon beta (n = 96 with valid notes of tumour thickness) compared with untreated historical controls (n = 288) matched for tumour thickness, localization, and sex, taken from the Central Malignant Melanoma Registry (CMMR) of the German Dermatological Society. Therefore, the main prognostic factors were identical between cases and controls. A computerized randomization was used to fit three control patients to each treated patient. Survival rate and recurrence-free survival were estimated in both groups for a period of 5 years. During the follow-up 3 patients died in the interferon beta group and the 5-year survival rate was 95%, as against 89% in the control group (P < 0.05 for difference between survival curves). Recurrence-free survival curves were also more favourable for interferon-treated patients than for the control group (P = 0.06). A detailed analysis of high-risk patients with tumour thickness of over 1.5 mm also demonstrated obviously better survival (5 years: 95% vs 77%; P = 0.012) and recurrence-free survival rates (5 years: 75% vs 53%; P < 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)