Melanoma rising, mostly among young women
Possible factor: They go tanning more than men
Planning to head to a tanning salon to beef up your bronze looks for prom and graduation or to get a head start on beach season? Young people might want to reconsider.
A dramatic rise in skin cancer rates among young adults is leading health officials to shed light on the risk factors, specifically tanning salons, which women are more likely to use.
Women under 40 are hit hardest by the escalating incidence of melanoma, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, out today.
Researchers examined records from a decades-long database of all patient care in Olmsted County, Minn., and looked for first-time diagnoses of melanoma in patients 18-39 from 1970 to 2009. Melanoma cases increased eightfold among women in that time and fourfold for men, the authors say.
“We need to get away from the idea that skin cancer is an older person’s disease,’’ says report co-author Jerry Brewer, a dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
The findings might be explained by gender-specific be-
“We need to get away from the idea that skin cancer is an older person’s disease.”
haviors addressed in other studies, the authors wrote. “Young women are more likely than young men to participate in activities that increase risk for melanoma, including voluntary exposure to artificial sunlamps.”
The study is the latest evidence of a steady rise in skin cancer. A major government study published Wednesday reported that while new cases of
Dermatologist Jerry Brewer
many of the most common cancers are declining, melanoma cases are increasing.
“We’re very concerned about the melanoma rates and the damage done by early exposure to sun, but also the increasing use of tanning beds,” says physician Marcus Plescia, director of the division of cancer prevention for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tanning industry disagrees
The Indoor Tanning Association defends tanning lamps. “There is no consensus among researchers regarding the relationship between melanoma skin cancer and UV exposure either from the sun or a sunbed,” says executive director John Overstreet. “I expect more from the Mayo Clinic. There is no direct link from their report to tanning beds.”
Yet, according to the National Institutes of Health, excess exposure to ultraviolet light increases risk for all skin cancers. UV light is invisible radiation that can damage DNA in the skin and can be generated by the sun, sunlamps and tanning beds.
Skin cancer most often occurs in people 50 and older. Melanoma is the most serious type and is potentially deadly. Symptoms include changes in an existing mole or development of an unusual growth on your skin, according to the Mayo Clinic. People with fair skin are at higher risk. The authors noted that the population of Olmsted County is mostly white.
The ‘Jersey Shore’ effect
Fair skin has less pigment to protect the body from UV radiation. Other risk factors: one or more severe sunburns as a child, an unusual number of moles, a family history of melanoma — and exposure to UV light.
The possibility of skin cancer might seem remote to young people. “I think (TV) shows like Jersey Shore portray healthy people as someone who has a great tan,’’ says Laura Hopwood, 22, who was diagnosed with melanoma a year ago. “Somehow you’re not attractive unless you’re deeply tanned. Before I developed melanoma, a friend scolded me about not using sunscreen.”
Hopwood, who works at Barnard College in New York, says she did not do enough to protect herself from sun damage but has never used a tanning bed. Her parents have not had melanoma. A surgeon made an incision from below her left eye to nearly her chin to remove damaged skin. Now she gets routine skin checkups every six months.
“The people most affected are not just Baby Boomers but actually young adults,” says Hopwood’s dermatologist, Kavita Mariwalla, director of dermatological surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. “Tanning before prom or big events has become a ‘norm’ for many teenagers. What they don’t know is that each time they visit a tanning booth, their risk of skin cancer rises.”