Avid tanner Brandi Donaldson was 25 when she first noticed a new mole right above her navel. She didn't worry until it started to change.
"It started to look a little different than my other spots," said Donaldson, now 27 and a counselor in Newport Beach, California. "It was a little darker."
It turned out to be not a mole, but melanoma, a potentially deadly form of skin cancer. It was localized and she didn't need chemotherapy or radiation treatment, but Donaldson endured a painful excision that removed a large chunk of skin from her stomach, as well as an infection.
The latest research shows that Donaldson is not unique among the young, who are experiencing a big increase in skin cancer. Even after research has tied tanning to skin cancers like melanoma and basal cell carcinoma, young people still see a tan as a fashion accessory and can be lax about protection.
In a recent American Academy of Dermatology poll, only half of those aged 18-24 said they are very or somewhat careful to guard against too much exposure.
RISING NUMBER OF CASES
An estimated 1.3 million cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Melanoma will account for nearly 60,000 of them but cause four fifths of skin cancer deaths.
In Canada, doctors will detect more than 80,000 skin cancer cases, and up to 5,000 of those will be melanoma, according to the National Cancer Institute of Canada.
More patients are women under 40. In fact, melanoma is now the most common cancer in women aged 25 to 29, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week showed the number of cases of non-melanoma skin cancer has tripled since the 1970s.
Researchers at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic said the rise in skin cancers in young people was disproportionate. They attributed the increase to the popularity of tanning, particularly among teen-age girls.
More..... http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_26333.html
"It started to look a little different than my other spots," said Donaldson, now 27 and a counselor in Newport Beach, California. "It was a little darker."
It turned out to be not a mole, but melanoma, a potentially deadly form of skin cancer. It was localized and she didn't need chemotherapy or radiation treatment, but Donaldson endured a painful excision that removed a large chunk of skin from her stomach, as well as an infection.
The latest research shows that Donaldson is not unique among the young, who are experiencing a big increase in skin cancer. Even after research has tied tanning to skin cancers like melanoma and basal cell carcinoma, young people still see a tan as a fashion accessory and can be lax about protection.
In a recent American Academy of Dermatology poll, only half of those aged 18-24 said they are very or somewhat careful to guard against too much exposure.
RISING NUMBER OF CASES
An estimated 1.3 million cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Melanoma will account for nearly 60,000 of them but cause four fifths of skin cancer deaths.
In Canada, doctors will detect more than 80,000 skin cancer cases, and up to 5,000 of those will be melanoma, according to the National Cancer Institute of Canada.
More patients are women under 40. In fact, melanoma is now the most common cancer in women aged 25 to 29, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week showed the number of cases of non-melanoma skin cancer has tripled since the 1970s.
Researchers at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic said the rise in skin cancers in young people was disproportionate. They attributed the increase to the popularity of tanning, particularly among teen-age girls.
More..... http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_26333.html