Malignant melanoma in childhood has been gradually rising, though it’s still rare, a population-based study affirmed.
Incidence among white children in the U.S. rose by an average 2% per year since 1973 to reach 6.0 per million in 2009, Kimberly Johnson, MPH, PhD, of Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues found.
Their analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database didn’t point to too much sun as a driver, the group reported in the May issue of Pediatrics.
Instead, the increase appeared to be greatest among those expected to have low exposure to sunburn-inducing UV-B rays due to living in northern latitudes, as well as among girls and 15- to 19-year-olds.
One factor that could explain why those three groups were at particular risk is UV-A exposure from tanning beds, Johnson’s group suggested.
Not only did the indoor tanning industry spring up in the 1970s, but teens have the highest prevalence of use, they pointed out.
“In addition to girls being more likely to tan indoors than boys, cities with higher percentages of whites and lower UV index scores have significantly higher densities of indoor tanning facilit[ies],” the authors wrote.
Other possible explanations might be changes in how melanoma cases are
Read the rest of this article on MedPageToday: Skin Cancer on the Rise in U.S. Kids
