A comparative epidemiological analysis of epithelioid, spindle cell, and mixed epithelioid‐spindle cell tumor subtypes of uveal melanoma, 1973–2016

Purpose To compare the epidemiology of epithelioid (ED), spindle cell (SC), and mixed epithelioid‐spindle cell (MES) tumor subtypes of uveal melanoma (UM). Methods Data were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results U.S. cancer database from 1975 to 2016. Incidence (IR) was estimated in number of cases/million/year. Incidence (IR) trends across the study's timeframe were assessed by measuring the annual percent change (APC). Disease‐specific survival (DSS) was calculated using the Kaplan‐Meier method. Cox regression analyses were conducted to evaluate hazard ratios (HR). Results Two thousand nine hundred thirty‐eight cases were identified: MES‐UM (38%), SC‐UM (49%), ED‐UM (13%). Diagnostic age in years was significantly different (MES‐UM, 63; SC‐UM, 58; ED‐UM, 63; p