Skin Cancer: It's not just for our grandparents

In respect for Skin Cancer Awareness Month and the beginning of what appears to be a very hot and sun-filled summer, here are several Skin Cancer facts I was unaware of before I started my research almost 2 years ago. All of this information plus more can be found on the Skin Cancer Foundation's website:

GENERAL

• Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed annually.
• Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.
• One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.
• Over the past 31 years, more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined.

• Nearly 800,000 Americans are living with a history of melanoma and 13 million are living with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer, typically diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.

• Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer; an estimated 2.8 million are diagnosed annually in the US.8 BCCs are rarely fatal, but can be highly disfiguring if allowed to grow.

• Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the second most common form of skin cancer.9 An estimated 700,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the US,10 resulting in approximately 2,500 deaths.
• Between 40 and 50 percent of Americans who live to age 65 will have either skin cancer at least once.

• About 90 percent of nonmelanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
• Treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancers increased by nearly 77 percent between 1992 and 2006.

MELANOMA

• One person dies of melanoma every hour (every 62 minutes).
• One in 55 people will be diagnosed with melanoma during their lifetime.

• Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for young people 15-29 years old.
• The survival rate for patients whose melanoma is detected early, before the tumor has penetrated the skin, is about 99 percent.16 The survival rate falls to 15 percent for those with advanced disease.
• The vast majority of mutations found in melanoma are caused by ultraviolet radiation.
• The incidence of many common cancers is falling, but the incidence of melanoma continues to rise at a rate faster than that of any of the seven most common cancers.17 Between 1992 and 2004, melanoma incidence increased 45 percent, or 3.1 percent annually.
• An estimated 114,900 new cases of melanoma were diagnosed in the US in 2010 — 46,770 noninvasive (in situ) and 68,l30 invasive, with nearly 8,700 resulting in death.

• Melanoma accounts for less than five percent of skin cancer cases,20 but it causes more than 75 percent of skin cancer deaths.
• Survival with melanoma increased from 49 percent (1950 – 1954) to 92 percent (1996 – 2003).
• Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer for males and sixth most common for females.

• Women aged 39 and under have a higher probability of developing melanoma than any other cancer except breast cancer.
• About 65 percent of melanoma cases can be attributed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
• One or more blistering sunburns in childhood or adolescence more than double a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life.
• A person’s risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns at any age.

• Survivors of melanoma are about nine times as likely as the general population to develop a new melanoma.

MEN/WOMEN

• The majority of people diagnosed with melanoma are white men over age 50.
• One in 39 Caucasian men and one in 58 Caucasian women will develop melanoma in their lifetimes.
• Approximately 39,000 new cases of melanoma occur in men each year in the US, and 29,000 in women.

• Approximately 5,700 deaths from melanoma occur in men each year in the US, and 3,000 in women.
• Five percent of all cancers in men are melanomas; four percent of all cancers in women are melanomas.
• Adults over age 40, especially men, have the highest annual exposure to UV.
• Melanoma is one of only three cancers with an increasing mortality rate for men, along with liver cancer and esophageal cancer.
• Caucasian men over age 65 have had an 8.8 percent annual increase in melanoma incidence since 2003, the highest annual increase of any gender or age group.

• Between 1980 and 2004, the annual incidence of melanoma among young women increased by 50 percent, from 9.4 cases to 13.9 cases per 100,000 women.

• The number of women under age 40 diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma has more than doubled in the last 30 years; the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma among women under age 40 has increased almost 700 percent.
• Until age 39, women are almost twice as likely to develop melanoma as men. Starting at age 40, melanoma incidence in men exceeds incidence in women, and this trend becomes more pronounced with each decade.

INDOOR TANNING

• Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a proven human carcinogen. Currently tanning beds are regulated by the FDA as Class I medical devices, the same designation given elastic bandages and tongue depressors.
• The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an affiliate of the World Health Organization, includes ultraviolet (UV) tanning devices in its Group 1, a list of the most dangerous cancer-causing substances.35 Group 1 also includes agents such as plutonium, cigarettes, and solar UV radiation.
• Frequent tanners using new high-pressure sunlamps may receive as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to the dose they receive from sun exposure.
• Ten minutes in a sunbed matches the cancer-causing effects of 10 minutes in the Mediterranean summer sun.
• Nearly 30 million people tan indoors in the U.S. every year39; 2.3 million of them are teens.
• On an average day, more than one million Americans use tanning salons.
• Seventy-one percent of tanning salon patrons are girls and women aged 16-29.

• Indoor ultraviolet (UV) tanners are 74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors.
• People who use tanning beds are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma.
• The indoor tanning industry has an annual estimated revenue of $5 billion.

PEDIATRICS

• Melanoma accounts for up to three percent of all pediatric cancers.

• Between 1973 and 2001, melanoma incidence in those under age 20 rose 2.9 percent.

• Melanoma is seven times more common between the ages of 10 and 20 than it is between birth and 10 years.
• Diagnoses — and treatment — are delayed in 40 percent of childhood melanoma cases.
• Ninety percent of pediatric melanoma cases occur in girls aged 10-19.

ETHNICITY

• Asian American and African American melanoma patients have a greater tendency than Caucasians to present with advanced disease at time of diagnosis.
• Skin cancer comprises one to two percent of all cancers in African Americans and Asian Indians.
• While melanoma is uncommon in African Americans, Latinos, and Asians, it is frequently fatal for these populations.
• As few as 48 percent of melanomas in African Americans are diagnosed at an early stage, compared to 74 percent in Hispanics and 84 percent in Caucasians.
• The overall melanoma survival rate for African Americans is only 77 percent, versus 91 percent for Caucasians.
• Melanomas in African Americans, Asians, Filipinos, Indonesians, and native Hawaiians most often occur on non-exposed skin with less pigment, with up to 60-75 percent of tumors arising on the palms, soles, mucous membranes and nail regions.
• Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common cancer in Caucasians, Hispanics, Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian populations.
• Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common skin cancer among African Americans and Asian Indians.
• Squamous cell carcinomas in African Americans tend to be more aggressive and are associated with a 20-40 percent risk of metastasis (spreading).
• Skin cancer represents approximately 2-4 percent of all cancers in Asians.

• Among non-Caucasians, melanoma is a higher risk for children than adults: 6.5 percent of pediatric melanomas occur in non-Caucasians.

AGING/SUN DAMAGE

• Up to 90 percent of the visible changes commonly attributed to aging are caused by the sun.
• Contrary to popular belief, 80 percent of a person’s lifetime sun exposure is not acquired before age 18; only about 23 percent of lifetime exposure to sun happens before age 18.


TREATMENT COSTS

• In 2004, the total direct cost associated with the treatment for nonmelanoma skin cancer was $1.5 billion.

• The number of nonmelanoma skin cancers in the Medicare population went up an average of 4.2 percent every year between 1992 and 2006.
• In adults 65 or older, melanoma treatment costs total about $249 million annually. About 40 percent of the annual cost for melanoma goes to treating stage IV (advanced) cancers, though they account for only three percent of melanomas.

Source: Skin Cancer Foundation; Skincancer.org