Melanoma and pregnant women: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Publication date: Aug 01, 2025

Pregnancy-associated melanoma is melanoma that can develop up to 1 year postpregnancy. There is no solid evidence on how pregnancy can affect melanoma survival, recurrence, or mortality. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to analyze the overall survival (OS), recurrence, and mortality rate in pregnant women diagnosed with melanoma. A comprehensive search was performed on Medline, Embase, and Web of Science to identify studies comparing melanoma in pregnant versus nonpregnant women. Hazard ratios (HRs) and risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was evaluated using the I2 statistic, and significance was defined as P values less than 0. 05. Statistical analyses were conducted using RStudio 4. 4.1. Our meta-analysis included 15 studies, consisting of 29 095 patients; 2917 (10%) were pregnant women. In the OS outcome, statistically significant differences were observed, favoring pregnant women in comparison to nonpregnant women; both groups were diagnosed with melanoma (HR: 0. 81, 95% CI: 0. 69-0. 95, P  = 0. 012, I2 = 85. 4%). The OS at 5 years did not show statistically significant differences (OR: 1. 08, 95% CI: 0. 50-2. 35, P  = 0. 83, I2 = 57. 9%). Similarly, the outcomes of melanoma recurrence (RR: 1. 19, 95% CI: 0. 95-1. 48, P  = 0. 12, I2 = 0%) and mortality (RR: 1. 60, 95% CI: 0. 82-3. 13, P  = 0. 16, I2 = 73. 5%) also showed no statistically significant differences between groups. According to this systematic review and meta-analysis, pregnant women diagnosed with melanoma have a higher OS rate than nonpregnant women.

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