MONDAY, Dec. 29, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with metastatic melanoma, survival outcomes are similar for men and women when receiving immunotherapy, according to a study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Surgery.

Hilary R. Keller, M.D., from Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, and colleagues examined outcomes in patients with stage IV melanoma who received immunotherapy, stratified by sex and age, using data from the National Cancer Database. A total of 20,023 patients (67.7 percent men) with or without first-course immunotherapy were identified from 2012 to 2019.

Of the patients, 44.2 percent received immunotherapy. The researchers found that compared with men, women had improved survival without immunotherapy in a multivariable analysis (hazard ratio, 0.90; P ​< ​0.001), but survival was equivalent with immunotherapy (hazard ratio, 0.95; P = 0.106). A smaller benefit of immunotherapy was seen for women versus men overall (hazard ratio, 1.08; P = 0.039), while greater benefit was seen for patients aged 45 to 60 years or older than 60 years versus 18 to 44 years (hazard ratios, 0.82 [P = 0.006] and 0.84 [P = 0.008], respectively).

"We found that the survival advantage of females over males with stage IV melanoma was largely driven by those who did not receive first course immunotherapy," the authors write. "Female patients who did not undergo first course immunotherapy treatment were associated with better outcomes compared to males."

Abstract/Full Text