Teenagers and young adults increasingly are being diagnosed with skin cancer, according to doctors who warn that the development could herald a wave of deadly lesions later in these patients' lives.
This onset is much earlier than in previous generations: Malignancies once thought to take 20 to 30 years to become noticeable are being removed from the faces, backs and necks of what one dermatologist described as "remarkably young" patients.
Melanoma--the deadliest form of skin cancer--now ranks as the most common cancer among people age 25 to 29. From the mid-1970s to the late 1990s, melanoma rates rose 60.5% among women age 15 to 29, according to figures from the American Cancer Society. That translates into 6.9 melanomas for every 100,000 women in that age group.
Among men in the same age group, the rate rose 26.7% in that period, to 3.8 for every 100,000.
While melanoma statistics can be tracked because doctors report cases to central cancer databanks, there's no comparable tally of more common skin malignancies such as basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, or of a pre-cancerous condition called actinic keratoses. But estimates from the American Cancer Society suggest rates of the skin carcinomas are also on the rise. No one disputes that skin cancer rates overall remain highest in the elderly, in whom tumors have had a lifetime to develop.
But doctors are especially disturbed by the numbers of younger people they're treating, which suggest that messages about sun avoidance still aren't getting through and that the tan made popular when French designer Coco Chanel dared to brown in the 1920s remains a sought-after look today.
Although doctors lack the data to know what exactly is behind the rise in skin cancers among young people, they suggest that several factors--more time in the sun, improper use of sunscreens and a rise in tanning salon visits--all play roles.
Dermatologists believe that young people are generally spending more time in the sun than their parents did and either not using enough sunscreen or failing to apply it properly. They also contend that many Americans, including the young, are spending more vacation hours in sunny climates than in previous decades--a result, they say, of increased leisure time and more affordable travel.
