Rise in Skin Cancer Rates Among Middle Aged Adults

A latest Clinical study revealed a dramatic rise in the rate of skin cancer among middle aged men and women between 1970 and 2009.

The population based study reported in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings revealed an eight-fold increase in skin cancer among men and women of age 40-60 between 1970 and 2009.

"The most striking finding was among women in that age group," says dermatologist Jerry Brewer, M.D., principal investigator of the study. "Women between 40 and 50 showed the highest rates of increase we've seen in any group so far."

In recent years, researchers have expressed a lot of concern on rising cases of melanoma that strike over 75,000 U.S. adults every year and result in 9000 deaths. But this is the first study that looked at the age bracket of adults highly susceptible to skin cancer.

For this study the researchers worked on the data taken from the Rochester Epidemiology Project. These records permitted the researchers to examine the health and illness of the people surveyed. The researchers noticed that non Hispanics of age 40-60 had the highest risk of skin cancer.  There was a 4.5 fold increase in the rate of skin cancer among non Hispanic men and a 24 fold increase among women.

Though women were more likely to develop the cancer, men on the other hand were more likely to develop deeper lesions.

Women below age 50 displayed an increase in melanoma, prompting researchers to investigate the link between premenopausal hormones to skin cancer.  

Each year the overall rate of surviving melanoma soared to 7 percent.

"The improved survival rates may be due to increased public awareness, more frequent screenings, and detection of skin cancer at earlier stages," says Dr. Brewer. "People have more access to dermatologists than before, and we have new tools, like dermoscopy [which includes the widely used ABCDE criteria], to view details of a mole and detect earlier melanomas."

The last decade saw a dramatic rise in melanoma. The scientists assume that the significant rise in the cancer could be due to wide spread use of tanning beds during 1980s and 1990s.

"There's been a cultural trend for many decades in which people connect being tan with being fit and even successful," says Brewer.

In 2013, Dr. Brewers team discovered growing rates of melanoma among young adults of age 18-39. 

People can adopt certain strategies to stave off this skin cancer. Most importantly avoid using tanning beds, use sunscreens every time you step out in the scorching sun, conduct regular self skin tests and see a dermatologist once a year.