DecisionDx-Melanoma Data Show Survival Differences Within the Same AJCC Stage
New data from 1,868 SEER-linked patients showed DecisionDx-Melanoma identified significant five-year survival differences within the same AJCC stage. The findings were presented at the 2026 AAD Annual Meeting.
New data show that DecisionDx-Melanoma significantly refines mortality risk stratification within standard staging categories for stage I–III cutaneous melanoma. Findings presented at the 2026 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting showed clinically meaningful differences in five-year melanoma-specific survival among patients assigned to the same American Joint Committee on Cancer stage.
The analysis drew on registry data from 22 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program sites linked to data from 1,868 patients with stage I–III cutaneous melanoma who were clinically tested with DecisionDx-Melanoma between 2013 and 2019 and had at least five years of follow-up or died from their disease.
Among patients with T1 (thin) tumors, five-year melanoma-specific survival was 96.7% for those with low-risk (Class 1A) results, compared with 70.0% for those with high-risk (Class 2B) results. Among patients with stage IIB–III disease, five-year melanoma-specific survival was 87.4% for low-risk results versus 48.5% for high-risk results. All comparisons reached statistical significance (log-rank test; p<0.05).
The findings indicate that traditional AJCC staging, which groups tumors based on clinicopathologic features alone, may underestimate or overestimate a patient’s true risk of poor outcomes. The data identify a subset of T1 thin tumors carrying mortality risk approaching that of thicker melanomas, a distinction that staging alone would not capture.
DecisionDx-Melanoma is a gene expression profile test designed to analyze tumor biology and deliver a personalized risk assessment for patients with stage I–III cutaneous melanoma. The test provides two distinct outputs: a personalized risk of sentinel lymph node positivity and a personalized risk of recurrence and/or metastasis.
The test has been clinically validated in more than 10,000 patient samples and ordered more than 220,000 times since launch. It is supported by more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, including prospective studies and meta-analyses, and was developed in collaboration with more than 100 US institutions.
Full abstract content will be available in the AAD online viewing portal and onsite at viewing stations beginning at the start of the meeting, and will also be published via the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology supplement in fall 2026.