From the Skin Cancer Foundation
http://www.skincancer.org/news/melanoma/melanoma-young-adults-2012
A new study has revealed an alarming rise in melanoma among people
aged 18 to 39: over the past 40 years, rates of this potentially deadly
skin cancer grew by 800 percent among young women and 400 percent among
young men. Researchers examined data on the 256 young adults in Olmstead
County, MN, who were diagnosed with melanoma between 1970 and 2009.
Between 1970 and 1979, just 16 new cases, or 4.8 cases per 100,000
people, were diagnosed. But in the decade ending December 31, 2009, 129
cases were recorded, an incidence rate of 30.8 cases per 100,000 people —
an enormous jump from the 1970’s.
Although lifetime risk of melanoma is about 1.5 times greater in males than in females, among young people this pattern is reversed, as this Mayo Clinic Proceedings
study demonstrated. The authors observed that Indoor ultraviolet (UV)
tanning, which is much more popular among young women than young men,
may account for the disproportionate increase in incidence among young
women. UV rays emitted by tanning machines are cancer-causing, and
Indoor ultraviolet (UV) tanners are 74 percent more likely to develop
melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors; those who tan indoors
just four times a year increase their risk of developing melanoma by 11
percent. Indoor tanners are also 2.5 times more likely to develop
squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell
carcinoma.
While the skyrocketing incidence figures are cause for major concern,
the authors noted that death from the disease among young people is
actually decreasing, due to earlier diagnosis; with more people aware of
changes in their skin, and better diagnostic methods, melanomas are
more frequently discovered at earlier stages, when they are easiest to
treat.
