Melanoma incidence continues to rise — but young women inspire hope
Facts at your Fingertips
By Emily Margosian, content specialist, May 1, 2018
Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, according to data collected by the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute, melanoma remained the fifth-most-common cancer in the U.S. in 2017, with an estimated 87,110 new cases, behind breast, lung, prostate, and colorectal cancers. (SEER does not include non-melanoma skin cancers in its rankings.)
According to SEER, melanoma accounted for 5.2 percent of new cases of cancer last year, and resulted in 9,730 deaths. Although the fatality rate of melanoma has stayed relatively stagnant over the past several decades, incidence has continued to rise. However, despite this trend, there is some good news. According to a 2018 JAMA Dermatology report based on CDC data, the incidence of melanoma among young white women between the ages of 15 to 24 has decreased an average of 5.5 percent per year from January 2005 through December 2014 (doi: 10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.5541 [Epub ahead of print]). To learn more about the AAD’s efforts regarding indoor tanning legislation, read this month’s feature at: staging.aad.org/dw/monthly/2018/may/are-teens-tanning-less.
For a more precise breakdown of melanoma incidence over the past 20 years, see the chart below.
