Getty Images. Indoor tanning has contributed to the spike. Skin cancers are treatable if detected early. Practice sun safety habits early and often. The bottom line. Skin Cancer.
Read this next. Skin Cancer People are told to put on sunscreen to help protect against sunburn and skin cancer. Medically reviewed by Susan Bard, MD. Try SkinVision now. Another factor that contributes to the rising melanoma rates is sun-seeking behavior and the use of tanning beds.
Tanning beds became widely popular in the s and grew to a large, global industry throughout the s. While there is some evidence showing that tanning bed usage is now starting to decline, they have still made their impact. The extensive usage of tanning beds is connected to the increase of melanoma rates in the general population and, more specifically, among young women increase by 2. Research has shown that UV light from the sun and tanning beds can cause not only melanoma but also increase the risk of a benign mole progressing to melanoma.
Read about: early melanoma symptoms and how to spot them. This helps explain why the incidence of malignant melanoma in Caucasian populations generally increases with decreasing latitude.
With the highest recorded incidence occurring in Australia, where, according to info from AIM, the annual rates of melanoma are 10 and 20 times the rates in Europe for women and men respectively. On the whole, there are many reasons for this increase in melanoma globally. Discover the main drivers below.
Melanoma: When to see a doctor. According to a study published in in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology , increases in melanomas occurred for tumors of all thicknesses, and the incidence doubled in all socioeconomic groups over a year period studied. This points to the fact that, even in populations with limited access to quality healthcare, higher rates were still reported. This means that at least some of the rise is due to a real increase in incidence.
Another reason for the rising melanoma rates is an increase in tanning bed usage over the years. Tanning beds became widely popular in the s and grew to a large, global industry throughout the s. We know that the use of commercial tanning beds has become popular over the past few decades, and this is likely a contributing factor to the increase in melanoma incidence that we saw.
Recently, a number of states, including California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Vermont have banned the use of tanning beds for minors under age 18, and it will be interesting to see if the incidence of melanoma in this age group changes over the next decades.
Is ultraviolet UV radiation from excessive sun exposure and tanning bed use, while not taking enough sun protection measures, the main reason for the high incidence of melanoma in this population? Mitsis: It is, but other factors may also be at play. Large studies have been done in Australia, which has one of the highest rates of melanoma in young people, and they found that nevi, facial freckling, family history, and eye color were also associated with an increased risk of developing melanoma.
So, genetic predisposition may also be a primary determinant. It is important to reinforce that the risk of developing melanoma in younger patients is likely the result of an interaction between genetic and environmental factors.
Our study was not a case-control analysis, but there are definitely data showing that in the adolescent and young adult group, an individual with a susceptible pigmentary trait or a family history of melanoma may be more susceptible to developing melanoma. Are melanomas in adolescents and young adults biologically different from these tumors in older adults? Khushalani: The question really is: Is there an inherent difference in the biology among children, young adults, and older adults?
And the simple answer is we do not know yet. A study 4 by researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, which looked at data on about patients aged 29 and younger, found that melanomas in children are deeper and thicker and are associated with a higher incidence of lymph node metastases—almost double the rate you would see in adults. What I infer from that study is that we are not diagnosing these patients at an early enough stage, so we need better screening and prevention strategies in this age group.
That will take more public education about the risk of skin cancer in young people. The good news is that despite the study results showing a higher incidence of lymph node metastases in those children, their survivorship rate was actually very good, even better than for adults.
0コメント